Democratic congressional leaders are rejecting a White House counteroffer to their demands for reforms to President Trump’s immigration operation as “incomplete and insufficient” as a deadline for a deal on Department of Homeland Security funding looms on Friday.
Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries trashed the response to their 10-point plan to rein in the crackdown, without releasing any specifics about what Team Trump had to say.
“The initial GOP response is both incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct,” the two Brooklyn Democrats said in a joint statement.
Despite the lack of agreement, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) expressed optimism about the two sides talking at all, calling it “forward progress.”
“Hopefully they can find some common ground here,” Thune said.
Time is running short for a deal as a new partial government shutdown would begin Saturday morning unless Trump and his GOP allies can win significant Democratic support to fund DHS, which includes the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency along with several other federal agencies.
Among the Democratic demands are an end to masks for ICE agents, no more racial profiling of suspected undocumented immigrants, a requirement for warrants from judges to enter private homes and independent investigations of alleged wrongdoing.
They say such changes are a must to protect innocent immigrants and American citizens alike after two protesters were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.
“Dramatic changes are needed at the Department of Homeland Security before a DHS funding bill moves forward,” Jeffries said. “Period. Full stop.”
Republicans have said they support a move to require ICE and Border Patrol to wear body cameras but have balked at many of the other Democratic demands, even though most of them are commonplace for other law enforcement.
Congress is trying to renegotiate the DHS spending bill after Trump agreed to separate it from a larger spending measure that became law last week. That deal opened a brief window for action as the two parties discuss new restrictions on ICE and other federal officers.
In addition to ICE and Customs and Border Protection, the homeland security bill includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration.
Lawmakers in both parties have suggested they could separate out funding for ICE and Border Patrol and pass the rest of the DHS funding by Friday, preventing potential travel problems at airports and disaster relief delays.
But Republican leaders have so far thrown cold water on that idea, perhaps because it would give Democrats more leverage to force reforms to ICE.
