Dems Demand Republicans Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The ask is in

Senate Democrats made their first major stand against ICE on Thursday by voting to derail a government funding package that included taxpayer dollars for the Department of Homeland Security as well as several other areas of the federal budget. They were joined by a handful of other Republicans to defeat the measure by a vote of 45–55.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had announced Democrats’ demands to reform immigration enforcement agency and the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort a day before the package came to the floor, telling reporters on Wednesday that “our caucus is unified” on these goals. Thursday’s vote means that lawmakers will now have to negotiate a new funding package with precious little time to spare before Friday night’s shutdown deadline.

Should that deadline pass without a resolution, it would only paralyze part of the federal budget. But that isn’t to say the effects wouldn’t be felt by the American people. DHS has a larger portfolio than you might expect. In addition to immigration enforcement, its budget also includes air travel security, disaster aid, the Coast Guard, and more. The package that failed in the Senate also affects other areas of government; it includes funding for defense, education, labor, health, housing, and transportation. Decoupling DHS from the rest of the package would allow the Senate to swiftly get the rest of the government funded by sending it to the president’s desk, leaving negotiations on reining in ICE and CBP as the sole issue before the Senate.

But that’s not the only demand Democrats are making. Before they are willing to support a funding package that includes DHS, they expect three specific reforms to ICE. Schumer listed them in order: