Negotiations on potential restrictions for federal immigration enforcement are already off to a rocky start in Congress, as they face a Feb. 13 deadline or a lapse in funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
On Wednesday night, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) released their list of ten requests: “targeted enforcement,” ending of masking for officers, more public identification of authorities, “body cameras for accountability,” use of force restrictions, and greater “state and local coordination and oversight” are among the asks. Much of the funding for the administration’s goals on immigration was already approved in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” last year, but Democrats are hoping to use the recent tensions as leverage to shift policy – as DHS also holds other key agencies that are not immigration-related, including FEMA and TSA.
Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), who’s considered a key negotiator in the Senate, slammed some of the suggestions as outlandish.
NEWS — Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries release 10 policy demands in ICE funding fight, in letter to GOP leaders: pic.twitter.com/M3cInciKYT
— Stephen Neukam (@stephen_neukam) February 5, 2026
“Democrats’ newest proposal is a ridiculous Christmas list of demands for the press. This is NOT negotiating in good faith, and it’s NOT what the American people want,” Britt posted to X on Wednesday.
“They continue to play politics to their radical base at the expense of the safety of Americans,” she added. “DHS, FEMA, Secret Service, and the Coast Guard run out of money in 9 days. Democrats don’t seem to care one bit.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) also brushed off the demands made by Democratic leadership.
“It’s totally unrealistic, their demand list went from 3 items to 10 items,” Thune told Fox News. “It just shows you they’re not serious. There’s a bunch of stuff in there that’s a non-starter, and they know it. Maybe they had to put it in there to satisfy MoveOn or some of their left-wing special interest groups.”
The original requests included a move away from administrative warrants to judicial warrants for arrests, no more roving patrols, an end to masking for officers, and more rules as it pertains to how force is used. The Daily Wire reported that a change in the type of warrants used could make some immigration arrests exceedingly difficult.
The government dealt with a brief shutdown that ended Tuesday, as the House had to go back and pass amended appropriations bills after the White House and Senate Democrats agreed to split DHS funding from the rest of the federal government’s funding.
The push for the funding split came after the Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis, which resulted in numerous other changes made in how the Trump administration approached the end of Operation Metro Surge in the region, leading to the arrests of thousands of people in the country illegally. White House Border Czar Tom Homan announced on Wednesday that 700 agents are headed out as part of a “drawdown” effort.
“We currently have an unprecedented number of counties communicating with us now and allowing ICE to take custody of illegal aliens before they hit the streets, unprecedented cooperation. And I’ll say it again, this is efficient, it requires only one or two officers to assume custody of a criminal alien target rather than eight or ten officers going into the community and arresting that public safety threat,” Homan said, The Daily Wire reported.
“More officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails means less officers on the street doing criminal operations. This is smart law enforcement, not less law enforcement. This is safer for the community, safer for the officers, and safer for the alien,” he said.
President Donald Trump told NBC News on Wednesday night that he “learned that maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch” after the sky-high tensions in Minneapolis amid anti-ICE protests.
“But you still have to be tough. These are criminals. We’re dealing with really hard criminals,” he added.
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