Democrats send Trump DHS funding counteroffer as agency is shut down

Democrats in Congress have sent a counterproposal to the White House and Republicans in negotiations to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday night.

Schumer, DY and other Democrats are locked in negotiations with President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans over new restrictions on federal immigration agents in exchange for DHS funding. The agency closed early Saturday morning after two weeks of interim funding ran out.

Negotiations over DHS funding intensified after federal immigration agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens during a migrant surge in Minneapolis. Democrats demanded that DHS funding be stripped from the package, which allocates money to a handful of other agencies, in the wake of the shootings and forced negotiations on immigration enforcement.

The Trump administration has since said it would terminate the Minneapolis operation.

The Democrat did not say what his counteroffer was. Schumer’s office did not respond to an email seeking comment on the details of the proposal.

Democrats have pushed for a ban on agents wearing face masks, mandatory body cameras, requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests and an end to “roving patrols,” among other priorities. The White House and Republicans have withdrawn the mask mandate and criminal warrant requirements.

The White House submitted its first counteroffer to the Democrats’ proposal last week. Democrats poured cold water on this, arguing that it did not adequately address their concerns.

Democrats have less incentive to capitulate on this latest spending stalemate, especially given the limited scope of the shutdown. final vote It shows that most Americans think Trump’s immigration policy has gone too far.

“This includes immigration policies that have changed significantly. I think Republicans still act like they have a straight line on immigration, but they clearly only have a couple of trifectas,” Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist who works on the Hill and for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in an interview.

Many DHS employees are still working despite the shutdown because much of the agency was deemed essential during the shutdown and partly because it was funded by last year’s massive tax and spending bill. However, if the closure continues for a long time, essential workers may be forced to work without pay. This includes employees at DHS subagencies, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Immigration enforcement operations at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol can proceed largely unaffected by the shutdown. Republicans in Congress have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into agency law enforcement as part of the party’s signature “One Big Good Bill” legislation.

The remainder of the government will be funded until September 30.