{"id":459368,"date":"2026-02-10T03:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T03:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/459368\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T03:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T03:19:12","slug":"democrats-and-white-house-discuss-homeland-security-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/459368\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats and White House discuss Homeland Security funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democrats have begun tentative talks with the White House on their demands for \u201cdramatic\u201d new restrictions on President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown<\/a>, discussing a possible agreement just days before funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to expire. <\/p>\n

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that Democrats had sent the White House their list of demands<\/a> for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies. The White House said Monday evening it had responded with a counterproposal. <\/p>\n

Neither side released their specific proposals publicly, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said there is \u201cforward progress.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dems and the White House are trading papers, which is a good sign,\u201d Thune said as he left the Capitol. \u201cHopefully they can find some common ground here, and both sides at this point I think are trying to do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Time is running short, with another partial government shutdown<\/a> threatening to begin Saturday. Among the Democrats\u2019 demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use-of-force standards and a stop to racial profiling. They say such changes are necessary after two protesters were fatally shot<\/a> by federal agents in Minneapolis last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans, the clock is ticking,\u201d Schumer said on the Senate floor. \u201cWe have sent you our proposals and they are exceedingly reasonable.\u201d <\/p>\n

Still, despite the bipartisan talks, it was unclear if the two sides could find agreement on the charged issue of immigration enforcement, especially as rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties were skeptical about finding common ground.<\/p>\n

Republicans have balked at the Democrats\u2019 requests<\/a> and some have demands of their own, including the addition of legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans register to vote and restrictions on cities that they say do not do enough to crack down on illegal immigration. <\/p>\n

And many Democrats who are furious about ICE\u2019s aggressive crackdown have said they won\u2019t vote for another penny of Homeland Security funding until enforcement is radically scaled back. <\/p>\n

\u201cDramatic changes are needed at the Department of Homeland Security before a DHS funding bill moves forward,\u201d House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday. \u201cPeriod. Full stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump deals with Democrats <\/p>\n

Congress is trying to renegotiate the DHS spending bill after President Donald Trump agreed to a Democratic request<\/a> that it be separated out from a larger spending measure that became law last week. That package extended Homeland Security funding at current levels only through Feb. 13,<\/a> creating a brief window for action as the two parties discuss new restrictions on ICE and other federal officers. <\/p>\n

The funding issue came to a head after ICU nurse Alex Pretti<\/a> was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, and some Republicans suggested that new restrictions were necessary. Renee Good<\/a> was shot by ICE agents on Jan. 7. <\/p>\n

While he agreed to separate the funding, Trump has not publicly responded to the Democrats\u2019 specific demands. <\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said late last week that the Trump administration is willing to discuss some items on the Democrats\u2019 list, but \u201cothers don\u2019t seem like they are grounded in any common sense, and they are nonstarters for this administration.\u201d <\/p>\n

Democratic demands <\/p>\n

Schumer and Jeffries have said they want immigration officers to remove their masks<\/a>, to show identification and to better coordinate with local authorities. They have also demanded a stricter use-of-force policy for the federal officers, legal safeguards at detention centers and a prohibition on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras.<\/p>\n

The Democrats say Congress should end indiscriminate arrests, \u201cimprove warrant procedures and standards,\u201d ensure the law is clear that officers cannot enter private property without a judicial warrant and require that before a person can be detained, it\u2019s verified that the person is not a U.S. citizen.<\/p>\n

Republicans have said they support the requirement for DHS officers to have body-worn cameras \u2014 language that was in the original DHS bill \u2014 but have balked at many of the other Democratic asks. <\/p>\n

\u201cTaking the masks off ICE officers and agents, the reason we can\u2019t do that is that it would subject them to great harm, their families at great risk because people are doxing them and targeting them,\u201d said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Monday. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to talk about things that are reasonable and achievable.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tennessee Sen. Bill Hagerty said on \u201cFox News Sunday\u201d that Democrats are \u201dtrying to motivate a radical left base.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThe left has gone completely overboard, and they\u2019re threatening the safety and security of our agents so they cannot do their job,\u201d Hagerty said. <\/p>\n

Consequences of a shutdown <\/p>\n

In addition to ICE and U.S. 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 last week, \u201cthere\u2019s a very good chance we could see more travel problems\u201d similar to the 43-day government closure last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lawmakers in both parties have suggested they could separate out funding for ICE and Border Patrol and pass the rest of it by Friday. But Thune has been cool to that idea, saying instead that Congress should pass another short-term extension for all of DHS while they negotiate the possible new restrictions. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s additional time that\u2019s needed, then hopefully Democrats would be amenable to another extension,\u201d Thune said. <\/p>\n

Many Democrats are unlikely to vote for another extension. But Republicans could potentially win enough votes in both chambers from Democrats if they feel hopeful about negotiations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball is in the Republicans\u2019 court,\u201d Jeffries said Monday. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democrats have begun tentative talks with the White House on their demands for \u201cdramatic\u201d new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[203372,23,118444,22149,1340,12,793,3138,790,9283,17153,13410,16950,196794,3,111,15754,191965,200479,8638,3770,9293,6148,3438,21,19,22,20,25,24,800],"class_list":["post-459368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-alex-pretti","tag-america","tag-bill-hagerty","tag-border-security","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-government-and-politics","tag-immigration","tag-john-thune","tag-karoline-leavitt","tag-mike-johnson","tag-minneapolis","tag-minnesota-ice-crackdown","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-racism","tag-renee-good","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-u-s-democratic-party","tag-u-s-department-of-homeland-security","tag-u-s-government-shutdown","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}