1 of 3 | House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., speaks during a press conference with other congressional Democrats on funding for the Department of Homeland Security and calls for reforms at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
Democrats have presented their Republican colleagues with reforms for immigration enforcement as lawmakers face a looming deadline to pass a Department of Homeland Security funding package.
Lawmakers have until Feb. 13 to pass legislation to fund DHS for fiscal year 2026 or risk a shutdown of the department. While negotiations are ongoing, Democrats and Republicans appear leagues apart.
On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Democratic leaders presented a list of 10 reform demands for immigration enforcement in response to aggressive tactics used by agents that resulted in the deaths of U.S. protesters in Minneapolis last month.
To reporters, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Senate and House Democrats were “united” in their aim to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement “and a Trump administration that is actually unleashing state-sponsored violence on the American people and on law-abiding immigrant families.”
“That’s completely and totally unacceptable, it’s unconscionable and it’s un-American,” Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during the press conference.
The letter they sent to Republican leaders lists reforms for immigration policy, including prohibitions on DHS officers entering private property without a judicial warrant, indiscriminate arrests, agents wearing masks, racial profiling and funds for enforcement near medical facilities, schools, child care centers, churches, polling stations and courts.
Other guardrails included making into a law a “reasonable” use-of-force policy, requiring DHS officers to display their identification, the preservation of state and local jurisdictions’ ability to investigate and prosecute crimes and excessive-force incidents.
Body cameras must be worn and only used for accountability of immigration officers and not for tracking protesters as well as regulations governing uniforms and equipment used by DHS officers to bar them from becoming a paramilitary police force were also among the demands.
“These are just some of the common-sense proposals that the American people clearly would like to see in terms of the dramatic changes that are needed at the Department of Homeland Security before a full-year appropriations bill,” Jeffries said.
The Trump administration has been escalating an aggressive immigration policy that has included some 3,000 officers deployed to Minneapolis where they detained thousands of migrants, as well as some U.S. citizens. The federal government has been accused of occupying the Democratic-led city where officials have called for the DHS and ICE to leave.
Democrats and human and immigration rights advocates have accused the Trump administration of violating the rights of migrants and U.S. citizens. Protesters who have taken to the streets have been met with violence from the immigration officers, who fatally shot two people in the city last month.
“What is happening in our cities just turns your stomach inside out,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said.
“When Americans see the pictures of these goons beating people, pushing people and even shooting and killing people, they say, ‘This is not American’ and ‘What the hell is going on in our cities!’ It is reminiscent of dictatorship.”
Schumer said they hope to have “tough, strong legislation” to present within 24 hours to the Republicans, whom they hope will “finally get serious about this.”
The clock on DHS funding began ticking down after Congress passed a funding package to avoid a government shutdown on Tuesday without legislation for the immigration enforcement department. Sub-agencies that could be affected include ICE but also the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration, among others.
Democrats, the minority party in both chambers, were successful in threatening to let the government shut down again unless the DHS funding was removed from the stopgap bill.
After the bill was passed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that two weeks was not enough time to resolve issues surrounding the funding package.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in a separate press conference that he did think a deal is possible if both sides come to the table with “good faith.”
There is “no time to play games with that funding” though, he added, but said they will not get in the way of immigration officers detaining migrants.
Some GOP senators are already pushing back on some of the proposals presented by the Democrats.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma described many of the demands as “nonstarters.”
“They’re not being serious,” he told reporters. “This is political theater.”
Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio chastised the notion of federal agents not wearing masks during the winter months.
“You shouldn’t micromanage the way that works,” he said. “Plus, they’re putting their lives in danger.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., rebuked the accusation, saying the Democrats have not made any unreasonable requests.
“If they want to shut down the department because they are so insistent on ICE officers acting secretly, then that’s their decision,” he said.
