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Democrats want ICE reforms but many want steeper changes than party leaders are willing to demand right now, John Bowden writes
Tuesday 03 February 2026 21:15 GMT- Bookmark
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The House voted Tuesday to end a partial government shutdown, but now Congress has just two weeks to resolve a disagreement over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the face of Donald Trump’s mass deportation program.
Democrats in both chambers are signaling that they are unwilling to authorize any further spending by the agencies without significant reforms to that program in the wake of the second deadly shooting of an American citizen in a month by ICE agents in Minneapolis, where a massive enforcement surge is still underway. Many, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, describe Trump’s ICE operatives as a de facto “secret police” operating on American soil, as agents are masked and do not provide the same information that regular law enforcement agencies do upon interacting with the public.
But there’s one problem: Democrats already tried negotiating with Republicans with funding for the government in the balance. It didn’t work.
A group of Democrats broke party ranks (with the blessing and support of leadership, alleged by critics) and voted to end a shutdown that lasted more than a month last year — with Democrats securing precisely nothing in the process.
Now, Schumer in particular is in a tough spot as Democratic leadership comes under fire once again for what some voters around the country, as well as some of the party’s leading 2026 candidates, say amounts to weakness.
February’s impending fight over ICE and DHS funding could end up being the deciding factor determining whether Schumer retains his position as leader of the Senate Democratic caucus after the 2026 midterms, even as his party currently appears to be on track to make up ground lost in the last election cycle.
open image in gallerySenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is facing another shutdown fight after emerging bruised from the last one, without claiming victory (AFP via Getty Images)The Senate Democratic leader’s hold over his caucus has become a major point of contention among his party in social media spheres as well as in private conversations among his party’s backbenchers in Washington, D.C., where Democratic House members in particular sounded off after his caucus was seen as capitulating in the shutdown fight in the fall.
On the popular “I’ve Had It” podcast, hosts Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan have taken to mocking his tendency for sending “strongly-worded letters” to the White House that are summarily ignored by the Trump administration as it spent 2025 uprooting USAID and other agencies through the now-defunct DOGE initiative.
A handful of House members have openly called for Schumer to step aside; none have done so in the Senate.
Even with Democrats experiencing a resurgence in campaigns around the country, it’s unclear whether Schumer himself has the political capital to weather another shutdown fight. Currently, the caucus is demanding Republicans budge on several points to extend funding for DHS past the February 13 deadline: An end to masks for ICE agents, cessation of roving patrols, no more warrantless entry and searches, and use of force standards.
open image in galleryThe chaos spread by ICE raids and enforcement operations around the country, as well as the resulting protests, have put both parties in a tough spot as further funding for the agency is up for authorization (Getty Images)Republicans in the House and some in the Senate have indicated clear opposition to some of those demands. Some progressives, however, are urging their congressional leaders to refuse to fund ICE at all, and many want tougher reforms to the agency.
“Short of Kristi Noem’s ICE leaving Minnesota, I’m not voting for a damn penny for ICE,” Rep. Angie Craig, a Minnesota congresswoman and candidate in the state’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary, told The Independent on Tuesday.
“They need to stop profiling our neighbors. They need to take off the mask. They need to properly identify themselves. They need to have judicial warrants before they arrest people,” she said. “Until that kind of shit stops. I won't vote for a damn penny.”
On the Sunday show circuit this past weekend, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries attempted to paint the Democrats as unified around the issue of ICE reforms as it pertained to voting for a DHS funding package. But it’s clear from reporting of Democratic caucus meetings and comments from House Democrats that how steep those reforms must be remains an open question.
“Block ICE funding or quit your job you useless fool,” the progressive group Justice Democrats tweeted at Schumer last month.
One of those Democrats is Graham Platner, the candidate leading in fundraising and polling over Maine’s incumbent governor, Janet Mills, in the race to challenge Incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins for her seat in November. Platner has attacked both Schumer and Jeffries on social media in recent days over their demands for DHS funding talks.
open image in galleryMaine Senate candidate Graham Platner fiercely criticized Democratic leaders in the House and Senate over the reported list of demands for ICE reforms (AP)“What are we doing here? DM me for my cell, Chuck. Because this is pathetic,” Platner tweeted at Schumer, in response to a tweet listing the Democrats’ demands.
He had an even icier comment for Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, after a reporter tweeted that Jeffries would seek “a ban on deportation of U.S. citizens as part of a deal on DHS conduct and the immigration crackdown”.
“I knew Democratic leaders were stupid and ineffectual. I had no idea they were THIS stupid and ineffectual,” tweeted Platner.
Republicans do not seem to believe, as of yet, that Democrats will actually let DHS funding lapse altogether, but are unsure of the path forward for a long-term appropriations package.
“A two-week CR probably means there’s going to be another two-week CR and then maybe another two-week CR after that,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters last week, according to The Hill, adding: “I just think it’s going to be really, really hard to get anything done.”
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Chuck SchumerDemocratsDepartment of Homeland Securityicegovernment shutdownRepublicansCongressshutdownWhite HouseHakeem JeffriesProgressivesDonald TrumpJoin our commenting forum
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