A masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent knocks on a car window in Minnesota on Jan. 12, 2026. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democrats on Wednesday detailed the “common sense” changes they want to implement for federal immigration enforcement, saying reforms must be added to a funding package that needs to become law before the weekend to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after a closed-door lunch that lawmakers in the conference are united on several policy restrictions.
They include:
- The end of roving patrols;
- Tightening the rules governing the use of warrants;
-
dir="ltr" aria-level="1">Requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to coordinate with state and local law enforcement;
- Implementing a uniform code of conduct that holds federal law enforcement to the same set of standards that apply to state and local agencies;
- Barring the wearing of masks;
- Requiring the use of body cameras;
- Mandating immigration agents carry proper identification.
“These are common-sense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Schumer said. “If Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order, plain and simple. They are choosing to protect ICE from accountability over American lives.”
Schumer said Democrats want to negotiate with Republicans, but called on Senate GOP leaders to separate out the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security from a package that includes five other full-year appropriations bills.
The bills must become law before a Friday midnight deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Schumer said he expects senators could “very quickly negotiate a bipartisan proposal” on restrictions to federal immigration activities.
Thune, White House weigh in
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before Schumer spoke that he isn’t ruling out any options for funding the government.
“These are all hypotheticals at this point, and I will reserve optionality to consider that,” Thune said. “But I think the best path forward, as I’ve said, is to keep the package intact. And if there are things that the Democrats want that the administration can agree with them about, then let’s do that.”
Thune expressed concern that any changes to the six-bill government spending package, which includes funding for the Department of Defense, would require it to go back to the House for final approval before it could become law.
The House is out this week and isn’t scheduled to return to Capitol Hill until
Monday, possibly causing a brief funding lapse if Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., doesn’t call that chamber back early.
A White House official said in a statement to States Newsroom the administration wants to avoid a shutdown and is committed to a “productive dialogue with the Congress.”
“A demand for agreement on legislative reforms as a condition of funding the Department of Homeland Security with a government funding deadline just 48 hours away is a demand for a partial government shutdown,” according to a White House official. “This bipartisan appropriations package, which the Democrats agreed to and have now walked away from, has been under negotiation for more than a month. The White House urges congressional Democrats not to subject the country to another debilitating government shutdown.”
Schumer said during his press conference the White House “has had no specific, good, concrete ideas.”
Alex Pretti killing
Congress has approved half of a dozen full-year government funding bills, but hasn’t yet cleared the remaining measures, which make up a huge swath of government spending.
A partial government shutdown would affect the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury. The Executive Office of the President, Supreme Court and judicial branch would also go without funding.
Democrats’ insistence for additional guardrails on how federal immigration officers operate follows the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, the second person in Minneapolis shot and killed by federal immigration agents.
ICE would still be able to operate during a shutdown, due to an influx of funding from the massive tax and spending cuts package Republicans passed and President Donald Trump signed into law last summer.
The “One Big Beautiful Act” provided the Department of Homeland Security with $170 billion for immigration enforcement spread across four years, with $75 billion of that going directly to ICE.
The Homeland Security appropriations bill at the center of the current dispute in Congress keeps ICE flat funded at $10 billion for the fiscal year that began on Oct. 1 and will end on Sept. 30.
In the wake of the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by federal immigration officer Jonathan Ross, Democrats and Republicans agreed to some changes for the department that are provided for in the bill. That includes $20 million for body cameras for ICE and other federal immigration officers, $20 million for independent oversight of detention facilities and a $1 billion cut to Customs and Border Protection funding, which totals $18.3 billion.
Border Patrol agents’ shooting of Pretti on Jan. 24 spurred Democrats to call for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign and demand additional reforms at DHS.
No masks, body cameras required
Maine independent Sen. Angus King said Wednesday while the funding bill up for debate allocates money for optional body cameras, he wants to require immigration agents to wear them and to identify themselves.
“I think one of the things that should be in it is no masks,” King said. “There’s not a law enforcement agency in the United States that wears masks. I’ve never encountered that before in my life.”
King added he wants to see increased “accountability” for federal immigration officers, including “independent investigations of injuries to either detainees or private citizens.”
The top Democrat on the panel that deals with Homeland Security funding, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, said the proposed changes are a start.
“I’ve got a much longer list of reforms that I would like, but we’re operating in a world of possibility, and I think that these reforms are things that we could get done in the next couple days, or the next week,” he said.
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she’s okay splitting off the Homeland Security spending bill from the rest of the package.
Murkowski also said she believes Trump should replace Noem.
“Ultimately it’s his call as to who he keeps in this position, whether it’s Secretary Noem or someone else. I understand that. And he’ll decide,” she said. “I just think that he deserves better.”
Two ‘losers,’ Trump says
North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis also called for Noem’s resignation, and for White House senior advisor Stephen Miller to be removed. Miller is the main architect of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, and played a pivotal role in the president’s first administration.
On Tuesday during an interview with ABC News, Trump called Tillis and Murkowski “both losers” for calling for Noem’s resignation and criticizing her handling of immigration operations in Minnesota. The president has stood by Noem.
“I’m kind of excited about being called a loser,” Tillis said. “Apparently, that qualifies me for DHS secretary and senior advisor to the president.”
South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds didn’t entirely rule out supporting a five-bill funding package if GOP leaders agree to remove the DHS appropriations bill.
“I won’t get ahead of the president on it … but even if you do that, the House still has to approve that,” Rounds said. “The question is, logistically, can they get back in time to do it by Friday night?”
Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, ranking member on the House Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee, wrote in a social media post that while the current bill isn’t perfect, it “is better than those alternatives.”
“But the worst thing Congress could do is allow a powerful department to operate with a blank check under a continuing resolution or shut the government down entirely.”
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