Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Sunday that the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security will continue until Republicans agree to “common-sense” changes to federal immigration enforcement.
Those demands include requiring agents to de-mask and to obtain judicial warrants before entering private property.
“Every other police department in America is unmasked,” Mr. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “ICE can do the same. This is a rogue force. They are almost trained, it looks like, to be nasty and mean and cruel and go way beyond what ordinary police departments do.”
Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, one of the GOP’s lead negotiators on the topic, pushed back, saying Democrats are playing politics with DHS funding — and that Americans will pay the price.
“President Trump is not going to back away from the mission,” Mrs. Britt, Alabama Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “The mission that the American people said they wanted him to complete – that is securing our border and making sure that we actually do interior enforcement.”
Mrs. Britt said Democrats are responsible for the shutdown, because “they are putting illegal immigrants in front of American citizens.”
The back‑and‑forth played out days after lawmakers left Washington for a week‑long recess without a deal to fund the Homeland Security Department through September. The partial DHS shutdown began Saturday.
Republicans note that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — both part of DHS — will continue operating thanks to President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which pumped more funding into those agencies.
But the shutdown will hit other DHS components, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Lawmakers made it clear Sunday that there is no clear path forward, as both parties dug in their heels.
Democrats insisted federal immigration agents need tighter oversight, especially after the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Republicans, for their part, are open to expanding the use of body cameras, but have warned that other Democratic demands would jeopardize public safety and immigration enforcement.
Along with demasking agents and requiring judicial warrants, Democrats want a ban on racial profiling and require agents to display a unique ID number and last name on a standardized uniform.
“The question that Americans are asking is, why aren’t Republicans going along with these common-sense proposals?” Mr. Schumer said.
Republicans argue the proposals are anything but common sense and would weaken enforcement. They’re especially opposed to forcing agents, who have become the target of doxxing efforts by left-wing activists, to remove their masks.
Border czar Tom Homan said masks are unfortunately essential because threats against ICE officers have skyrocketed.
“Why don’t they talk about maybe passing legislation to make it illegal to dox agents or something like that?” Mr. Homan said on Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” “But the masks right now are for officer-safety reasons.”
He added that agents already wear placards identifying their agency.
“When it comes to masks, I don’t know of another law enforcement agency in the country that has an 8,000% increase in threats,” he said. “Just yesterday, the director of ICE, his wife, was filmed walking to work. His home address has been doxed. His kids have been doxed and filmed.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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