Deal to fund DHS draws fire from right and left as shutdown continues

A proposal endorsed Monday by President Trump to end the 40-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is taking fire from Democrats and conservative Senate Republicans, delaying a possible vote to reopen the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and other critical agencies.

The proposal to fund most of DHS but put off funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) removal operations appeared to have momentum, but that changed on Tuesday when critics in both parties panned it.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a rising conservative star, criticized the proposal during the Senate Republican lunch Tuesday for effectively cutting ICE’s budget and said he would not vote for it, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

“I’m skeptical about voting to defund or to cut ICE funding,” he said after the meeting. “I would hope that we’re not going to be asked to do that. I do not want to vote to defund ICE. I don’t want to vote to cut ICE funding. I want ICE to be fully funded.”

Republican colleagues who presented the proposal to Trump on Monday said they can provide more money for ICE’s deportation programs through a budget reconciliation package later in the year, but some conservatives are doubtful that will actually happen, given the difficulty of passing a reconciliation bill through both chambers with only GOP votes.

“I’m not going to vote to cut ICE funding, period,” he said.

Funding for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) budget accounts for $5.4 billion of ICE’s $10 billion annual budget, according to a person familiar with the bill.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) rejected the latest Republican offer Tuesday afternoon but suggested it could be improved through further negotiation.  

He and other Democrats said the Republican offer they received earlier Tuesday fell short because it did not include Democrats’ demanded reforms to ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), such as requiring federal immigration officers to obtain judicial warrants  and prohibiting federal agents from wearing masks.  

“We have to rein in ICE and stop the violence. We need reform,” Schumer said at a press conference after meeting with his Democratic colleagues at lunch. “Every one of my colleagues, every one, A, believes we should be unified, and, B, we need reforms of ICE — every single one.”

Schumer said Democrats would send a counteroffer.

“They sent us an offer, and we’ll be sending them an offer back, and I can assure you it will contain significant reform in it,” he said.

Meanwhile, centrist Democrats, including Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.) and others, are waiting to see what else Republicans will concede. 

“We’re still going to negotiate it. It’s not quite where we want it,” said Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. 

Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and one of the lead Democratic negotiators, said meetings with White House negotiators have been “productive,” but she insisted that any bill to fund even part of ICE must include reforms.

“We’ve been very clear that if we’re talking about funding any part of ICE and CBP, we absolutely must take some key steps to rein them in. The current Republican offer in front of us does not do that,” she said.

“Reforms must make it into law,” she said.

Republicans said they would not agree to adding new reforms for immigration enforcement operations if Democrats won’t agree to fully fund ICE in the long-delayed Homeland Security appropriations bill.  

“A lot of the reforms were contingent on funding for ICE,” Thune said. “Since the ERO office is not going to be funded through ICE, the Democrats have basically [given] up on the reforms.”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said the strong pushback to the proposal seemed to sap the momentum it appeared to have after Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, and other GOP senators presented it to Trump on Monday.

Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) joined Monday’s meeting at the White House.

“If you asked me last night, I thought we were pretty close. That’s one of the dangers here, you never let people sleep on stuff,” Tillis said.

The North Carolina Republican said a handful of centrist Democrats might be willing to break with Schumer, but there aren’t enough of them to override the Democratic leader’s opposition to the bill.

Tillis said Schumer would have to “release” Democratic colleagues to vote their consciences on a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, and so far he’s holding out for more concessions from Republicans.

Republicans might need as many as 10 Democrats or more to vote for a funding deal because a growing number of Senate conservatives are voicing their opposition to cutting ICE funding, even if they are promised that money would be restored in a future budget package.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) also raised concerns with colleagues about the proposal to split off ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations funding during Tuesday’s lunch, according to sources familiar with the internal conversation.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), one of Trump’s strongest allies on Capitol Hill, said he didn’t understand why fellow Republicans are agreeing to cut a huge chunk of ICE’s budget out of the Homeland Security package, a bill that Democrats had negotiated and signed off on before federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

“Why would you just fund a part of government, especially when they don’t want to fund the part that protects Americans from illegal aliens that are committing crimes? We’ve lost people like Laken Riley,” Scott told CNBC’s Joe Kernen in an interview.

The Florida senator dismissed the likelihood of making up the shortfall in fiscal 2026 appropriations for ICE with another budget reconciliation package that could be used to avoid a Senate Democratic filibuster.

“This idea that they’ll get funded through a reconciliation package is a pipe dream. We’re not going to get a reconciliation package done,” Scott warned.

Senate Republican leaders told GOP colleagues at Tuesday’s lunch meeting that Trump supports the proposed deal, but the president has yet to embrace it publicly.

Trump told reporters at the White House that afternoon he’s “pretty much not happy” with any deal reached with Democrats and pledged to take a “hard look” at whatever negotiators finally hammer out.

His comments overshadowed a statement by a White House official released earlier in the day that the proposal outlined to the president during a two-hour meeting at the White House “seems to be an acceptable solution.”

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