Dems Outline Their Demands for ICE As Republicans Promise to Shoot Down Basic Reforms

House Republicans barely passed a funding plan Tuesday, voting after more than a day of wrangling to approve five full-year funding bills as well as a two-week continuing resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Senate Democrats demanded last month that in exchange for their votes on funding plans, reforms and constraints be imposed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. This caused a DHS funding impasse and a short-lived partial government shutdown, which has now ended.

But for how long?

Members of Congress now have a colossal task before them: reining in ICE in the wake of its recent violence against protesters and observers, negotiating and passing reforms that Democrats and at least some Republicans will support — and the Trump White House will sign into law — in an incredibly short period of time.

The current continuing resolution covering DHS will expire on February 13, less than 10 days from now.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) held a joint press conference Wednesday morning to outline congressional Democrats’ priorities for ICE reform. These priorities include: mandating body cameras, visible identification, and no masks for ICE agents, as well as requiring court warrants so agents cannot simply enter homes or cars without authorization, as DHS currently asserts.

Democrats also said they would push for mandates that ensure U.S. citizens are not detained or deported, as well as legislation that would give them the ability to sue if their rights are violated.

A more formal written proposal that Democrats will send to Republican negotiators is expected within the next 24 hours, according to the Senate minority leader.

“We’re on the same page,” Schumer said of the top priorities of House and Senate Democratic leaders.

Democrats largely frame their demands around the idea that the reforms they advocate are standard practices within the majority of state and local law enforcement agencies across the country.

“Let’s be very clear about these reforms, nothing in these reforms requires ICE to do anything different than what your local and state police departments are required to do,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told TPM last week.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) also pressed the same idea on Wednesday.

“This is being presented, I think, incorrectly, as some sort of immigration negotiation. It’s not,” Schatz (D-HI) told reporters on his way to the Senate floor. “We just want ICE to not be the only exception among law enforcement agencies…that they don’t need warrants, that they don’t need to identify themselves, that they don’t need to be trained, that they don’t need to be professional and follow proper procedure, that if someone is involved in an officer-involved shooting…there’s no investigation, they’re smearing the victim.”

“None of these things are normal in the armed forces,” he continued. “None of these things are normal in federal, state or county law enforcement. So all we are asking is that ICE be treated like every other law enforcement organization in the United States of America.”

Although most Democrats in Congress appear to be on board with the general ideas presented by leaders as necessary constraints to be placed on ICE, the details will still need to be written into legislation. After that, lawmakers will still have to negotiate with congressional Republicans and the Trump White House — who have already said they will oppose some of the most basic and easily implementable demands proposed by Democrats.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already pushed back against Democratic demands to ban ICE agents from wearing masks. The President has repeatedly said he supports ICE agents wearing masks, saying they “are being doxxed and targeted” and need masks “to protect their own identities and protect their own families.”

Johnson also expressed disinterest in the push to require a judicial warrant to detain undocumented immigrants.

The President and some congressional Republicans are also trying to use the opportunity to perpetuate President Trump’s continued assault on Democratic-run cities. They are pushing for Congress to crack down on sanctuary cities, accusing officials who adopt sanctuary policies of being responsible for ICE’s practices and demanding that they cooperate with federal law enforcement in detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants.

“Mike Johnson has expressed unreasonable positions,” Jeffries said Wednesday in response to Johnson’s remarks. “He actually supports the idea that masks and lawless ICE agents should be deployed in communities across America.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) also pushed back against Johnson’s objections.

“Ultimately, we need further reforms. We need to rein in this lawless operation,” Van Hollen said Wednesday. “From what I’ve heard the President say, it sounds like they’re not serious about meaningful reform. But we’ll see where that goes.”

Even if the deadline is short, the Democrats have significant leverage in the negotiations. The adopted DHS CR Congress will conclude in less than two weeks. Both chambers will need to vote on a new CR in order to avoid a DHS-wide shutdown — which would mean a funding shortfall not only for ICE and CBP, but also for departments like TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard. Blurring the dynamic, ICE and CBP have a separate funding pool they can draw on that was allocated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

Democrats are making it clear that they will not vote for another DHS CR unless Republicans seriously engage with them on meaningful ICE reforms.

“If the Republicans refuse to make the changes, the American people demand that they force the Republicans to close DHS,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), who also attended the Democratic leaders’ press conference Wednesday, told reporters.

Van Hollen, a ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, stressed that if Republicans and the White House are serious about making changes to ICE practices, “we should codify them…one thing we’ve learned is you can’t trust a word these guys say.”

Although closing DHS is an option, Democrats said they recognize that this option would harm DHS departments that are not part of ICE.

“If they’re not willing to engage in meaningful reform, we should at least divvy up the other parts of DHS for separate votes…Coast Guard, TSA,” Van Hollen told TPM.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) — who has been named a top negotiator for Senate Republicans as chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee — also expressed hope that the current DHS CR won’t be the last.

“We lost the whole weekend and both days this week [on the minibus passage]so we didn’t have time to move on. So we need a little more time. So I hope that they will see the great effort that we have made… and that we will have another CR,” Britt told reporters when asked about the negotiating schedule.