Democrats throw cold water on shutdown deal, call for more ICE reforms

WASHINGTON – As negotiations ramp up on Capitol Hill to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Senate Democrats seem to be clinging to a particular word: reforms.

It was a term party leaders used in the context of Immigration and Customs Enforcement nearly two dozen times during a March 24 news conference.

The refrain threw cold water on a new ​GOP compromise to fund the critical agency – minus ICE’s enforcement and removal operations – and end a crisis that has upended air travel across the country.

“Democrats are continuing to push for modest reforms,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on ⁠the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters. “The current Republican offer in front of us does not do that.”

After a group of Senate Republicans got President Donald Trump ‌on board with stripping out some pieces of ICE funding from ​a must-pass appropriations bill, a nascent sense of optimism set in overnight. For the first time in nearly six weeks, lawmakers started to suggest the shutdown could come to an end before or shortly after they’re scheduled to go on a two-week Easter recess.

Twenty-four hours later, those hopes seemed less certain.

Senate Democrats emerged from a weekly ⁠caucus meeting seemingly uniformly dissatisfied with legislative text offered by the GOP.

Senate Minority ‌Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said Democrats ‌would send back a counterproposal that included more provisions to “rein in” ICE and Border Patrol. Democrats have repeatedly demanded a ban on masks for immigration enforcement agents and raids without judicial ⁠warrants, among other stipulations.

“Finding a path that actually delivers on reopening the government, funding all of the operations of DHS, et cetera, and that secures meaningful reforms, is challenging,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Connecticut, said. Still, real ‌progress was being made behind the scenes, he ‌said.

In meetings with lawmakers, White House officials have demonstrated an openness to at least some of the concessions Democrats want. They’ve committed to expanding the use of body-worn cameras, reforming agent trainings and bolstering requirements for officers to ⁠identify themselves when conducting immigration enforcement. Pain points have remained, however, over masking and warrants. ​Schumer said the latest proposal “does not have ⁠any reforms ​on ICE.”

Amid the disagreement, Transportation Security Administration employees have continued to work without pay with many quitting or opting not to show up, jeopardizing airport security nationwide. Both sides of the aisle are feeling the pressure to fix a crisis that’s intimately affecting many Americans.

“The devil’s in the details,” Sen. Mark ⁠Warner, D-Virginia, said of a potential DHS deal. “But obviously, we want to get rid of those lines at TSA.”

Yet even Republicans aren’t fully on board with the deal leaders in their own party negotiated. As part of the tentative agreement, GOP lawmakers ⁠told Trump they’d attempt to pass elements of the SAVE America Act, a voting restrictions bill the president has called his top legislative priority ahead of the midterms, through a budgetary process later this year known as reconciliation.

That tactic faces a considerably uphill battle, though. Senate rules require that reconciliation laws, which ⁠only need a simple majority vote to pass, ‌primarily impact only the federal budget. Even prominent proponents of the SAVE Act ​have said it ‌likely doesn’t meet those standards.

“I would love to pass SAVE America by reconciliation,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said. “Can ​we? I don’t know.”