WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officials are not “realistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Security will close next week if they do not work with Republicans and the White House.
Democrats say they won’t vote for a DHS spending bill when funding runs out unless there are “dramatic changes” at U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies after the fatal shooting of two protesters in Minneapolis last month.
Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, released an expanded list of 10 detailed proposals Wednesday night for curbing President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign. Among the demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use-of-force standards and an end to racial profiling.
Congress is trying to renegotiate the DHS spending bill after Trump last week agreed to a Democratic request to separate it from a larger spending measure and extend it at current levels for two weeks while the two sides negotiate. The deal came after ICU nurse Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a US Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis on January 24, and some Republicans agreed that new restrictions were needed.
But with almost a week gone, a shutdown is becoming more and more likely to begin on February 14 as Republicans have been cool to many of the Democrats’ demands.
“This is not an empty control situation where Republicans just agree to a list of Democratic demands,” said Thune, RS.D. “The only way to get reforms to ICE is to agree to a bill.”
As of now, Thune said, “we are not close to having any kind of agreement.”
In addition to ICE and US Customs and Border Protection, the homeland security bill includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. If DHS shuts down, Thune said, “there’s a very good chance we could see more travel problems” similar to the 43-day government shutdown last year.
Democratic demands
Schumer, D-N.Y., said he was “astounded to hear Republicans say his party’s proposals were political or unworkable.”
“It’s about people’s basic rights, it’s about people’s safety,” Schumer said. If Republicans don’t like the ideas, he said, “they need to explain why.”
Schumer and Jeffries, D-N.Y., made several demands, including no masks for officers, judicial mandates and better federal coordination with local authorities. The list released Wednesday added several new items, including a stricter policy on the use of force, legal safeguards in detention centers and a ban on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras.
The Democrats say that Congress should end indiscriminate arrests, “improve warrant procedures and standards,” ensure that the law is clear that officers cannot enter private property without a judicial warrant and require that before a person can be detained, it must be verified that the person is not an American citizen.
They also want an end to racial profiling, saying that DHS officers should be prohibited from stopping, questioning or searching people “based on an individual’s presence in certain places, their occupation, the language spoken and their accent or their race and ethnicity.”
For immigration enforcement officers, Democrats say that in addition to officers removing their masks and showing identification, DHS should regulate and standardize uniforms and equipment to bring them in line with other law enforcement agencies.
Republican boost
Schumer called it “a gut-wrenching moment for Congress” as immigration enforcement operations left Minneapolis and other US cities. But the Republicans were in denial.
John Barrasso of Wyoming, the second Republican senator, said the demands are “radical and extreme” and “a wish list of the far left.”
Senator Katie Britt, who is helping to lead the negotiations, said the list is a “ridiculous list of Christmas demands” and warned that time is running out before the deadline.
“I encourage them to talk to the White House,” she said. “Only one week left.”
Until the last funding bill
Thune also urged Democrats and the White House to speak out. It is not clear if they are or if the Democrats are ready to reject any of their demands.
Some Republicans have demands of their own, including adding legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans can register to vote and restrictions on cities they say don’t do enough to reduce illegal immigration.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it’s up to Republicans to make sure the government doesn’t shut down because they’re responsible.
“The American people want this abuse to stop,” Murphy said.
Some seek to limit the pain of closure
Other lawmakers are looking for options to prevent another partial shutdown.
One idea that is emerging is to essentially fund some of the other agencies within DHS – the Coast Guard, airport operations under TSA and disaster assistance from FEMA.
“Why don’t you take that off the table?” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is in need of FEMA funds from recent disasters.
“If it doesn’t look like they can do it,” he said of the immigration enforcement overhaul. “I really think they should look at a la carte funding of agencies.”
Some Democrats have said they agree, but Thune said Thursday that splitting the DHS appropriations bill to single out ICE would “undermine law enforcement.”
Splitting the bill would essentially mean cutting ICE by letting it go without its routine federal funding because the agency already has such a robust budget from Trump’s tax-and-spending bill from last year.
ICE is expected to receive about $10 billion in the annual appropriations bill, a fraction of the $175 billion more for homeland security for the administration’s mass deportation agenda.
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Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.