Republicans and Democrats dug in Tuesday on their positions on immigration enforcement, as each side sought to leverage the unrest abroad to their benefit in the DHS shutdown saga, which is approaching its three-week mark.
Senate Democrats held firm that Immigration and Customs Enforcement should face new policy restrictions in exchange for providing the 60 votes needed for funding, prompting accusations from the administration and GOP lawmakers that they were hindering national security.
“I’m not going to vote to fund ICE and let them detain, brutalize, shoot, or kill more American citizens just because Donald Trump started an unconstitutional war that no one asked for,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), a leadership member and top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters that Democrats, “at some point, have to take ‘yes’ for an answer.”
“Above all, right now, with enhanced terror threat from Iran and Iran-funded terrorist groups, it is vital that we ensure the Department of Homeland Security is fully funded and fully functioning,” Thune said in earlier remarks on the Senate floor.
Notably, some of Senate Democrats’ more centrist members, who were key to prior funding deals, told the Washington Examiner they, too, were steadfast in their ICE demands, including Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Angus King (I-ME), offering the latest sign that an imminent solution was not on the horizon.
“All they have to do is agree to the same [use-of-force] standards that our FBI and law enforcement across this country use,” Rosen said of Republicans.
King echoed other Democrats in arguing that the Iran conflict should underscore the need to pass funding for all other DHS agencies besides ICE, a proportion Republicans maintain is a non-starter. ICE and other federal law enforcement under DHS remain funded during the shutdown through the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed last year.
“It’s up to them,” King said. “It’s easily solved.”
In a bright spot for a potential bipartisan breakthrough, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), a lead Republican negotiator, said she was “encouraged” that recent discussions had shifted from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to more rank-and-file Democrats that could lead to a deal.
TRUMP FACES FIRST DOMESTIC TEST ON IRAN CONFLICT WITH SENATE WAR POWERS VOTE
As part of the pressure campaign against Democrats, Britt and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME) unveiled details about the shutdown ramifications facing DHS workers, including the 50,000 Transportation Security Administration employees who they said are set to miss their first full paycheck next week.
“If you look at where we are right now with regards to increased threats to our homeland — what we saw in Austin being an example of that — I think that it is incredibly irresponsible to not fund the agency that is supposed to keep us safe here at home,” said Britt, referring to a recent bar shooting in Texas allegedly inspired by Trump’s attacks on Iran.
