Senate Democrats on Wednesday formally rejected a Republican offer to remove money for immigration enforcement from the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, insisting that any deal to fund the department include meaningful restrictions on federal agents carrying out President Trump’s deportation crackdown.
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said his party had made a counteroffer that would reopen the department and “rein in” Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “with common-sense guardrails.”
Though Mr. Schumer did not describe the Democrats’ proposal in detail, two people familiar with it said that it contained narrow concessions on immigration enforcement that a bipartisan group of senators had been discussing with the White House last week, which fell short of Democrats’ initial demands.
The offer that Republicans sent Democrats on Tuesday did not reflect any of those concessions, according to both people, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive and continuing negotiations. It proposed funding all of the Department of Homeland Security except the parts of ICE involved in detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants.
Republicans had pitched Mr. Trump on the deal by offering to craft a separate bill that would address ICE funding and his long-sought restrictions on voting. They contended that Democrats could not expect to add new restrictions on an agency that they were refusing to fund.
Pressure has been mounting to resolve the impasse over homeland security funding as Transportation Security Administration agents continue to work without pay and security lines at some airports stretch for hours. And members of both parties have been eager to point the finger at the other over the stalemate, which has lasted more than five weeks.
“Democrats have continued to move the goal posts over all of this time,” said Senator John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican.
“We thought there had been some progress,” Mr. Schumer said. “But then Republicans sent us their offer yesterday, and it contained none of what had been talked about.”
Lawmakers expected negotiations to drag on, as members of both parties pushed to resolve the funding standoff by Friday, ahead of a scheduled two-week recess that Republican leaders have threatened to cancel.
But the path to any deal appears steep. Senate Democrats have been unified on requiring new restrictions on federal immigration enforcement.
Some hard-right Republicans have already sounded the alarm about any deal that does not fund immigration enforcement. They are concerned that the party would not be able to unite to pass the second bill, which they would seek to push through without Democratic support using a special process called budget reconciliation.
And G.O.P. lawmakers would need to sell any spending agreement to Mr. Trump, who opposed a deal on Sunday, reversed his position on Monday, sounded lukewarm on Tuesday and then repeatedly blasted Democrats in social media posts on Wednesday.
Separately, Mr. Schumer has faced some pressure from House Democrats, who have effectively been cut out of negotiations between senators and the White House as they hash out a spending measure that can win the 60 votes necessary to advance past the filibuster in the Senate.
Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top House Democrat, met with Mr. Schumer on Wednesday. After the meeting, Mr. Jeffries said that the two leaders were on the same page about the contours of any bill to fund the Homeland Security Department.
“This is a back-and-forth between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans,” he said. “We have full visibility into it.”
But, he added, he viewed a restriction on federal immigration agents wearing masks and a requirement that officers seek a judicial warrant before entering private homes as “essential” to any deal. Republicans have so far rejected those measures.
Separate from the Senate negotiations, Senator Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who leads the panel that oversees homeland security spending, met on Tuesday with moderate House Democrats.
The group included Representative Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, who had been privately working on a legislative framework with Markwayne Mullin, the Oklahoma Republican who just left the Senate to become homeland security secretary.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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