Partial government shutdown looms as ICE negotiations stall

View of the dome of the U.S. Capitol against a blue sky in Washington, D.C.

Large swaths of the Department of Homeland Security are set to shut down Saturday unless lawmakers strike a last-minute deal to fund the agency, with Democrats threatening to oppose any legislation that does not include new restrictions on federal immigration agents.

Democrats demanded a long list of changes to DHS after federal immigration agents killed Alex Pretti last month in Minneapolis, including tighter rules on warrants and a ban on agents wearing face masks. The White House is open to some of them, but the two sides have not reached an agreement days before the department is set to run out of money.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said he thinks a compromise is possible and asked Democrats to agree to a short-term funding deal for DHS in the meantime.

“I hope our Democrat friends will remain at the table and give talks more time to mature,” Thune said Wednesday on the Senate floor.

The White House sent a detailed proposal to Democrats on Wednesday night, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing negotiations. But it remains unclear whether the two sides can reach an agreement.

“If they don’t add things that will rein in ICE, they are not getting our votes,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-New York, told reporters Wednesday before receiving the proposal, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the branch of DHS that Democrats have criticized most. “Plain and simple.”

The House would also need to pass any last-minute deal to fund the agency. Republicans have a perilously narrow majority in the chamber, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, has said Democrats will not support any DHS funding bill without “dramatic changes” to the agency.

A funding lapse would trigger the third full or partial federal government shutdown in barely three months. The government shuttered for 43 days in the fall amid a standoff between the two parties over expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies; that was followed by a shutdown of much of the government for several days that ended last week.

This shutdown would affect only DHS – but it would not shutter ICE or U.S. Customs and Border Protection, because Republicans sent those agencies tens of billions of dollars in additional funding last year that would allow them to continue to operate.

Instead, the brunt of a shutdown would fall on the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and other agencies within DHS. It would affect about 13% of the federal civilian workforce, most of whom would be forced to work without pay, according to data from DHS and the Office of Personnel Management.

Republicans have emphasized the potential impact on agencies unrelated to the administration’s immigration efforts if DHS funding lapses.

“The pain will be felt by the men and women of TSA, who will once again work to keep our airways safe without a paycheck,” Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nevada, who chairs the appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, said Wednesday. “There will be uncertainty for our Coast Guard men and women – who have no choice but to show up for work. … It will reduce the amount of funding in the Disaster Relief Fund – just weeks after massive winter storms affected wide swaths of the country.”

The Senate is expected to vote Thursday on taking up legislation to fund the agency through Sept. 30, but Democrats have said almost unanimously that they will oppose any bill to fund DHS without new restrictions on immigration agents.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, who broke with her party during last year’s shutdown and voted for a Republican funding bill, said Tuesday that she would not do so this time.

“We are asking our colleagues and the White House to work with us,” Cortez Masto told reporters. “It’s common sense. Work with us. Unfortunately, we are not seeing that.”

Democrats have demanded new restrictions including requiring federal immigration agents to wear identification and body cameras, and barring them from operating near schools, medical facilities, churches, polling places, child care facilities and courts. They also want to ensure that states and local jurisdictions can investigate and prosecute potential crimes committed by agents and excessive use of force, among other demands.

Republicans have criticized many of the Democrats’ demands, arguing that they would needlessly hamstring agents. Thune has said he expects the White House to make its own demands, including new protections for federal immigration agents and measures cracking down on cities that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, sometimes known as “sanctuary cities.”

“Too many jurisdictions prohibit local police from cooperating with immigration enforcement, a policy that not only defies common sense, but makes things more dangerous for everyone,” Thune said Monday on the Senate floor. “And so I hope that my Democrat colleagues are prepared to talk about these and other issues.”