Senate Majority Leader John Thune said most of Democrats’ 10-point list of demands for curtailing the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations are “very unrealistic and unserious.”
Passing the fiscal 2026 Department of Homeland Security spending bill that Democrats have taken hostage to secure those changes is “not even in the realm of possibility” because they’re not even negotiating, the South Dakota Republican said.
Every Senate Republican The Washington Times talked to Thursday agreed.
“Fantasy land” is how Missouri GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt characterized Democrats’ “ridiculous ideas that are never going to go anywhere.”
Fellow Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley said, “They want to lard up all of these procedures and legislative requirements that will be in the law permanently, of course, to effectively prevent ICE and border patrol and other law enforcement agencies from doing their jobs. I’m for ICE doing its job. I want criminals to be deported. So does the public.”
Even Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of the Republicans most willing to cut deals with Democrats, said several of the demands are nonstarters.
Mr. Thune told reporters that Republicans are likely to file another stopgap funding measure for DHS early next week since the current one expires Feb. 13. Whether that is a short-term stopgap or one running through the remainder of the fiscal year will depend on whether Democrats participate in serious negotiations, he said.
“It seems like they are posturing themselves in such a way that would make any sort of middle ground virtually impossible to find, at least right now,” Mr. Thune said. “What they were doing might have been somewhat designed to appease the special interest groups on their side, the initial list that they put out. But I think there’s some room in there to negotiate.”
Democrats’ demands include requiring immigration enforcement agents to have a judicial warrant to enter private property, stop racial profiling, wear body cameras and display a unique ID number and last name on a standardized uniform. They also want to ban agents from wearing masks to hide their identities.
“Americans already support our ideas,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said. “They’re not extreme. They mirror the same standards that law enforcement around the country already follow.”
The Democrats’ demands go beyond typical law enforcement policies and include new rules barring immigration arrests near hospitals, schools, churches, courts, child care facilities and other “sensitive locations.”
They also want to require local authorities to approve any “large-scale” immigration operations and be able to investigate any use-of-force incidents.
Sen. Mike Rounds, South Dakota Republican, said Democrats’ asks show there is “probably no way they could actually agree to anything and keep their left base happy.”
Indeed, some Democrats have said there is no room for compromising on the points they have laid out.
“For me, these demands are red lines, nonnegotiable,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, said. “The risk here is so great that we will lose the basic standards that apply to critical freedoms and protections from government overreaching.”
Mr. Blumenthal said there is room for compromise in the details of the provisions Democrats want, such as how to define “near sensitive locations” where immigration enforcement operations should be banned.
“The basic idea is that somebody going to report a crime shouldn’t be arrested because they won’t report crime,” he said. “Someone going to a doctor’s office, taking a child to be treated, someone going to church — my Republican colleagues profess great support for the freedom of religion — there are so-called sensitive locations where there should be an avoidance of interference.”
Some Democrats want to go even beyond the 10-point list their leaders laid out.
“We’ve got to have a way to make sure they actually follow through,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, said. “ICE has already made clear it’s not enough to pass something into law because they’re willing to break the law.”
She said accountability mechanisms include deciding who has the authority to sue ICE and its agents if they break the law, “what rights surviving families have when ICE agents kill people and keeping an independent monitor.”
Ms. Warren added, “Police departments around the country have submitted to independent monitors when they’ve lost the confidence of the communities they serve. The same should be true for ICE.”
Mr. Schumer said Republicans’ immediate rejection of their proposals was “totally predictable,” arguing they do not want ICE to have any accountability.
“If Republicans don’t like our proposals, pouting is not enough,” he said. “They need to explain why to the American people because they don’t have a good explanation.”
Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, the GOP appropriator in charge of the DHS bill, said she has made multiple overtures to Mr. Schumer, both in person and over email, to kick-start negotiations but has not gotten a response.
“So that doesn’t seem like a good-faith effort in trying to find a solution,” she said.
Ms. Britt’s Democratic counterpart on DHS appropriations, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, said he’s willing to negotiate, but there are basic principles to end “the way that ICE is terrorizing American cities” that Democrats must achieve.
“We are united in that we need these roving patrols to end, we need the secret police to end, and we need accountability,” Mr. Murphy said. “Are there different ways to get there? Of course. But I don’t think we’re going to settle for anything that’s window dressing. We need real, meaningful changes in the way that ICE is conducting itself.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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