Congressional Democrats have sent the White House their latest proposal for new constraints on federal immigration officers that they want tied to any deal to restart federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security, but there was no sign on Tuesday of a rapid resolution of the spending stalemate.
Both White House officials and Democrats on Capitol Hill have kept confidential the specifics of their offers to end the standoff that allowed funding for the agency to lapse as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The outlines of the Democratic demands, however, are well known: limits on masked police, an end to random sweeps, new requirements for judicial warrants, putting “sensitive locations” such as churches, schools, hospitals and polling places off limits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement among them. The offer was given to the White House Monday evening.
“These are common sense,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said Sunday on CNN about the Democratic proposals. “Police departments across America use them. We have a rogue agency. Why don’t we rein them in? That’s what the American people are asking Republicans.”
Democrats have portrayed the earlier White House counteroffer to Democrats, which has not been made public, as “nonserious.” People familiar with the talks have said that the White House has not been responsive to many of the Democratic demands for limits on federal immigration agents, and has pushed for new authority of its own, including increased penalties for those who dox officers. Some Republicans have also said that they want an end to local and state policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, sometimes called sanctuary city policies, in exchange for concessions.
“When it comes to masks, I don’t know of another law enforcement agency in the country that has an 8,000-percent increase in threats,” Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, said Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “Just yesterday, the director of ICE, his wife was filmed walking to work. His home address has been doxed. His kids have been doxed and filmed.”
With Congress on a weeklong recess and lawmakers scattered around the world and the nation, chances for approval of a funding agreement this week remained remote since members would have to return to Washington to pass it.
And Democrats made clear they intended to stick to their demands and did not appear to be uneasy about any political backlash for blocking money for the agency that also funds airport security, the Coast Guard and disaster relief.
“We need change that is dramatic, that is bold, that is meaningful and that is transformational,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the House minority leader, said on CBS. “For instance, judicial warrants should be required before ICE agents can storm private property or rip everyday Americans out of their homes.”
Many of the Department of Homeland Security’s workers remain on the job but run the risk of missing a paycheck if the funding fight drags on.
Mr. Trump is scheduled to deliver the first formal State of the Union address of his second term before Congress next Tuesday. Without some breakthrough, he will make the speech before Congress with one agency without a congressional appropriation for the year, though ICE has a separate pot of money from an earlier measure that can keep it operating.
Carl Hulse is the chief Washington correspondent for The Times, primarily writing about Congress and national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience reporting in the nation’s capital.
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