U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) holds a press conference following the Democratic weekly policy lunch on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., Feb. 3, 2026.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
House and Senate Democrats on Wednesday laid out their demands for immigration enforcement reform as Congress races to avoid a shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security. An agreement with Republicans seems a long way away.
DHS only received two weeks of stopgap funding in the law enacted Tuesday that reopened most of the government. Now, Democrats are holding up a full-year appropriations bill until Republicans agree to immigration enforcement reforms. A full-year appropriations bill for DHS was stripped from the broader funding package by Senate Democrats after two U.S. citizens were shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, both of New York, laid out their demands at a press briefing on Wednesday at the Capitol, flanked by a slew of Democrats. Democrats’ demands include: mandatory body cameras; disallowing immigration officers from wearing masks; tightening restrictions around warrants and ending “roving” patrols.
“When Americans see the pictures of these goons beating people, pushing people, and even shooting and killing people, they say this is not America,” Schumer said. “It is reminiscent of dictatorship.”
Getting agreement on changes to DHS procedures in the funding bill is going to be a steep challenge for Congress. Sixty votes are needed in the Senate to pass any spending bill, meaning Democrats will be required.
A shutdown at DHS would also affect its sub-agencies, which include Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.
Lawmakers on Wednesday lamented the difficulty of negotiations, underscored by another shutdown deadline of Feb. 13 looming.
“I’m kind of discouraged, I’m not sure that we’re finding a lot of common ground yet,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told reporters. “I’m more than willing to continue to work with them, but we’ve got to get that bill funded, and we’ve got to do it without hurting the law enforcement efforts that are going on right now.”
Republicans said they are open to some of the Democratic proposals, including increased training for federal agents and body camera requirements. But barring face masks and requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests are still nonstarters for the GOP.
“Training, body cams are already being implemented, so there’s some things like that can be agreed on,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a brief interview with CNBC. “The challenge with the face mask thing is our law enforcement agents need to be safe as well as the public. … With this doxxing of agents, that’s a real security issue.”
Hoeven said a requirement for judicial warrants would “change the whole process in a way that I think would be very difficult for ICE to enforce the law.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., echoed Hoeven and said “we’d be happy to talk about training” when asked about a middle ground. Removing agents’ masks, however, was a “nonstarter” for Mullin.
Democrats in the Senate are digging in on the other side.
“If they want to shut down the department because they are so insistent on ICE officers acting secretly, then that’s their decision,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who leads Democrats on the Appropriations subcommittee that funds DHS. “We’re not making unreasonable requests here.”
In the House, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has also declared warrant changes as non-negotiable. He was due to meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday.
“That is a road that we cannot or should not go down,” Johnson said at a press conference Tuesday regarding warrant requirements. “We will figure out a path through this, but we have to enforce our immigration law.”
Earlier Wednesday, the Trump administration said it would reduce the number of federal law enforcement agents in Minnesota by about 25%, following criticism of overly aggressive action there.
— CNBC’s Emily Wilkins contributed to this report.
