Congressional Democrats on Wednesday clarified their demands for continued government funding, less than 48 hours ahead of a potential partial government shutdown.
To keep paying the Department of Homeland Security, Democrats want large structural changes to some of the ways that ICE has been operating in cities like Minneapolis all across the country.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined those demands this afternoon, making clear that Democrats do not support the work of ICE during the second Trump administration.
“This is not border security,” Schumer said. “This is not law and order. This is chaos. What ice is doing is state-sanctioned thuggery. It must stop. Republicans must work with Democrats to find legislative solutions to restore order and public safety. Congress has the authority and the moral obligation to act. What’s missing is Republican will.”
Leader Schumer said that all Democrats agree on the following three areas for changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement:
They want to end roving patrols of cities and ensure the use of warrants by ICE officers.
They also want to boost accountability and create a framework for investigations.
And perhaps most critically, Democrats want to ban agents from wearing masks while they work, wear and use body cameras and use and carry proper identification.
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The conditions would require a whole lot of Republicans to be willing to revise a funding bill that just a couple of days ago looked like it would pass easily on Capitol Hill, especially after the House of Representatives passed it at the end of last week.
But the House is currently in recess, and Republican Speaker Mike Johnson would likely need to call them back to prevent a government shutdown.
Some Republicans are ruling out potential changes.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Scripps News he was not in favor of any of the demands that were made by Schumer.
“If we don’t pass the bill that was presented to us by the House, the government will shut down,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH). “We have to weigh the benefits of that. Maybe there’s other things the administration can do to alleviate the fears of a very hyper-specific, smaller, much, much smaller part of that bill.”
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Six bills must still pass in the Senate to avert the shutdown. Most still have bipartisan support — but without an agreement on DHS funding, it’s looking more likely that the government could enter a partial shutdown by the end of the week.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
