Republicans, Democrats spar on status of DHS negotiations as hope fades for ending shutdown

Democrats are still demanding that immigration enforcement agents stop wearing masks and obtain judicial warrants to enter private property as part of a counteroffer on Department of Homeland Security funding they sent Republicans on Wednesday.

Republicans have long dismissed those demands as unworkable, and said the GOP’s offer to fund all of DHS except for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement’s detention and deportation operations is a response to what Democrats have been proposing for weeks.

“I don’t know how you get to a solution when they keep moving the goal posts, and where when you hit a target that they said would be acceptable, they walk away from it,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York called those claims “nonsense” and “poppycock.” He said Democrats’ demands have been consistent. He said senators had constructive conversations over the weekend in which Republicans “conceded” that some of Democrats’ proposals made sense.

“We thought there might be a path forward on some of the ways to reform ICE and to get some of the things everybody knows ought to be in federal legislation,” Mr. Schumer said.

The increasing partisan finger-pointing comes as lawmakers in both parties say they want to end the long security lines at the nation’s airports and other harmful impacts of the 40-day DHS shutdown, but can’t get on the same page to do so.

Republicans said they have no reason to agree to Democrats’ demands on immigration enforcement, when their offer to fund 94% of DHS excludes the $5.5 billion annual budget for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division that identifies, arrests, detains and deports unauthorized immigrants.

“Why do you want policy changes that would apply to funding if there’s not going to be any funding for the operation?” Mr. Thune said.

President Trump has not publicly endorsed the GOP offer, saying he would be unhappy with any deal they cut with Democrats after the minority party reneged on an initial DHS funding agreement that top appropriators reached in January.

He said on Truth Social on Wednesday that Democrats want to take care of immigrants over American citizens and to distract from his administration’s accomplishments.

“The Radical Left, Country Hating Democrats are trying to create inner chaos to take away from the great military achievement we are having in Iran,” Mr. Trump said. “They hate seeing us WIN so completely and decisively, but the American public sees what is going on.”

The Senate will hold another test vote on Thursday to see if 60 lawmakers will vote to end Democrats’ filibuster of DHS funding.

Senate Democrats have signaled the vote will fail, but say they are still trying to do something to help with the airport chaos. They’ve repeatedly sought to pass standalone funding for the Transportation Security Administration, but Republicans have rejected those attempts.

The Senate GOP’s offer to fund all of DHS except for ICE’s deportation force is similar to a proposal Democrats have repeatedly floated, but with some key differences.

Democrats have proposed funding all DHS except for ICE and Customs and Border Protection. They say that the Trump administration has flouted appropriations law by using CBP and the Homeland Security Investigations division of ICE to aid in the mass deportation effort.

They say their proposed immigration enforcement policy changes are still needed if those agencies will be funded.

Mr. Schumer said Democrats responded to Republicans with a “serious offer” that includes some of those changes, although he did not offer specifics.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, told reporters after meeting with Mr. Schumer on Wednesday that the party is still pushing for provisions to require ICE agents to stop wearing masks and to use judicial warrants for arrests on private property.

“Masks and judicial warrants, from our standpoint, are absolutely essential,” he said. “We want ICE to be compelled to conduct itself like every other police officer, every other law enforcement agency, every other cop in the country.”

Mr. Thune said it is difficult to write statutory requirements around those policies, given the nuanced circumstances around ICE’s use of masks and administrative warrants.

“But I think you’ve already seen changes happen with the new leadership at DHS with regard to both those policies,” he said, adding that Republicans offered several other policy changes that Democrats rejected.

“I don’t know how they will ever satisfy their crazy online political base, because that’s what this is about,” Mr. Thune said.

On the small chance Senate Republicans could get peel off enough Democratic votes to pass the partial DHS funding bill, it is not clear if the House will get on board with defunding ICE’s deportation division, even though the agency has a separate stream of funding to keep that operation going.

“We always have Homeland funded as an entire department. There’s obvious reasons for that. It’s very important,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told reporters. “I don’t think we need to be breaking it apart.”