Thune says Democrats ‘kissed that opportunity goodbye’ at getting ICE reforms

Congressional Democrats consider the Senate-passed plan to end the Homeland Security shutdown a victory, but they’re walking away empty-handed with none of their sought-after reforms to immigration enforcement.

Pushing for sweeping changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of a pair of fatal shootings in Minnesota is why Democrats blocked more than a half-dozen attempts to prevent or end the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.

But the window of opportunity to secure any reforms slammed shut just after 2 a.m. Friday.

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“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.

At the onset of the shutdown in early February, Schumer and Democrats presented 10 categories of reforms they wanted to be implemented for ICE and immigration enforcement in order to earn their votes to fund DHS.

The proposals were in response to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good and were designed to drastically rein in the power of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

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Among them were requiring judicial warrants for agents, forcing agents to unmask, requiring agents to display identification, ending roving patrols, preventing agents from operating in certain areas like schools and hospitals, requiring body-worn cameras, increasing oversight of detention centers tied to funding, and several more.

The warrant requirements and unmasking were hard red lines for Republicans and the White House, but throughout negotiations, the GOP made concessions on several others, including limiting immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, allowing congressional oversight of DHS detention facilities, and enforcing the use of visible identification for DHS agents.

Democrats walked away with none of those offers that were on the table, aside from $20 million to purchase body-worn cameras, which was already in the original Homeland Security funding bill.

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“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms,” Thune said.

Still, Schumer and congressional Democrats scored a political victory of sorts, with the legislation carving out funding for ICE and the border protection arm of CBP.

Republicans, however, front-loaded immigration enforcement funding last year with $75 billion over the next several years and plan a similar move using the same budget reconciliation process to extend funding for up to a decade.

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And with a rebellion against the legislation fomenting among House Republicans — who are widely unhappy with immigration enforcement not being funded right away — all parties could be taken back to square one.

“This is exactly what we wanted,” Schumer said after the Senate advanced the bill. “This is what we asked for, and I’m very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line.”