WASHINGTON — Democrats will not vote to fund the nation’s immigration-enforcement and detention agency unless “serious” reforms that constrain how agents interact with the public are in place, party leaders said.
Leaders in the Senate and House said Wednesday that Democrats would withhold their votes on funding the Department of Homeland Security, home to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, unless Republicans agree to changes at the department whose agents shot and killed two unarmed protesters in Minnesota in January.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, provided a list of demands in the funding talks: clear identification for immigration agents; body cameras; the requirement of warrants signed by a judge; language barring agents from entering sensitive locations, like schools, houses of worship and polling places; and a legal bar against racially profiling people to detain.
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of Louisiana has publicly opposed the removal of immigration agents’ masks and the requirement of judge-approved warrants, two of Democrats’ “must-have” items.
Funding for the department expires Feb. 13.
As protests against often violent ICE actions grow, and as the Trump administration escalates its mass deportation program, community leaders say the demands by Democrats fall short.
“Most of these suggestions seem like insufficient half-measures that are not going to actually curb the harm that DHS and ICE have been wreaking on communities,” said Lauren Herman, legal director of Make the Road New Jersey, an immigrant advocacy group.
“Our call would be to abolish ICE,” Herman said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “They have only existed since 2003. Many of us were alive before they were around and we survived just fine.”
Eliminating the agency altogether is a non-starter, though, as Herman noted. “What is a realistic reform is certainly much more challenging.”
Maura Collinsgru, our director of policy and advocacy at NJ Citizen Action, an advocacy group, also said the Democrats’ suggestions amounted to tepid ideas.
“The reforms proposed by Democrats are the bare minimum needed for a DHS funding agreement. We need to have a broader conversation about what is effectively an over-funded armed force engaging in extra-judicial incarcerations and killings,” Collinsgru said in an emailed statement. “Our country should have immigration enforcement, but with the proper constitutional guardrails, and not funded at an outsized level.”
Beyond funding for DHS, Colingsgru said, the Congress should “also need to revisit the path to citizenship for millions of immigrants.”
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Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat sworn in last month, has encouraged people to record federal immigration agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection.
Officials in Hoboken recently organized a training about residents’ rights regarding interactions with immigration officers.
Like they did in the fall, when they pushed for health care funding, Democrats are using the Senate’s filibuster to press for policy changes, wielding one of the few political tools they have while Republicans hold Congress and the White House.
The math is clear: Republicans hold 53 seats and Democrats, including the two Independents who caucus with them, possess 47. Since the bill Congress is debating needs 60 votes in the Senate minimum, whatever bill passes will need Democratic votes, a point of leverage for the minority party.
“We are going to have accountability at DHS or there will not be Democratic votes to fund a lawless agency,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
Democrats said they would unveil a draft of their bill to reform the department on Thursday. The department was founded in 2003 as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, on Wednesday said he is open to a year-long bill, known as a “continuing resolution,” or “CR,” that would keep funding at the department flat through September.
Though a spokesperson, Paxton Antonucci, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-2nd) said certain places should be “off limits” for immigration agents and that officials should not use racial profiling in their work.
The Supreme Court, by a 6-3 vote in a case called Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem, cleared the way for the Trump administration to racially profile in its immigration policing.
“The congressman agrees that protected places like churches, temples, and schools should be off limits, and he has never believed racial profiling is acceptable. That is not how law enforcement should work, and it is not something he supports,” Antonucci said in an email Wednesday.
“He also supports agents wearing cameras. When it comes to masks, he understands why people have concerns, but we are in a time where agents are being threatened, and people are actively trying to find where they live and who their families are. This is a volatile situation, and he does not believe we should do anything that puts agents at greater risk. With cameras on, there is already a clear record of what is happening,” Antonucci said.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5th), a Democrat who often votes with Republicans on police issues, introduced a bill last week to create other standards for immigration officers like dashboard cameras in vehicles and the protection of sensitive locations, like houses of worship, schools and hospitals.
Other New Jersey members, including Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st), have filed their own bills with different but often overlapping suggestions.
Congress is scheduled to hold three oversight hearings next week about DHS, two in the Senate, one in the House.
