Democrats Reject GOP Plan to Reopen DHS, Demand ICE Reforms
Intra-Party Split Detected
Some Republicans oppose carving out ICE funding, with conservatives like Rick Scott calling reconciliation promises a 'pipe dream' and others worried about defunding ICE
Left says
- •ICE reforms are essential to prevent violence and protect civil liberties after deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis in January
- •Democrats seek specific accountability measures including judicial warrants for home entries and prohibitions on agents wearing masks during operations
- •The agency already received $75 billion in previous funding, allowing continued operations during the shutdown without proper oversight
- •Republicans are moving goalposts by offering partial funding without meaningful reforms after initially agreeing to Democratic proposals
Right says
- •Democrats are holding DHS hostage with unreasonable demands that would cripple immigration enforcement operations
- •Requiring judicial warrants instead of administrative warrants would slow agents in time-sensitive deportation situations
- •The Republican proposal funds 94% of DHS operations while addressing Democratic concerns about ICE enforcement
- •Democrats keep adding new demands after Republicans made good-faith compromises, making negotiations impossible
Common Take
High Consensus- The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for 39 days, affecting TSA operations and causing airport delays
- Federal employees are going without pay during the extended shutdown
- Both parties want to reopen DHS and restore normal operations
- ICE has continued operating during the shutdown due to previous funding allocations
The Arguments
Left argues
ICE already received $75 billion in previous funding and continues operating during the shutdown, so Democrats can demand accountability reforms like judicial warrants and prohibitions on masked agents without disrupting essential operations.
Right counters
Requiring judicial warrants instead of administrative warrants would create dangerous delays in time-sensitive deportation situations, and Democrats are essentially demanding to handicap immigration enforcement while refusing to fund the agency.
Right argues
Republicans offered to fund 94% of DHS operations while addressing Democratic concerns, but Democrats keep moving the goalposts by adding new demands after Republicans made good-faith compromises.
Left counters
The Republican proposal contains no meaningful reforms to address the deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis, and partial ICE funding could still enable the agency to shift money internally and expand enforcement without oversight.
Right argues
Democrats are holding DHS hostage and causing unprecedented airport delays while TSA workers go unpaid, all to protect illegal immigrants by creating 'safe spaces' at polling locations.
Left counters
Republicans passed bills twice that Democrats voted against, but these bills failed to include the essential civil liberties protections needed to prevent future violence by federal agents operating without proper accountability.
Left argues
Every Senate Democrat unanimously agrees that ICE reforms are necessary to stop violence and protect civil liberties, making this a principled stand rather than political obstruction.
Right counters
Democrats are demanding reforms that would fundamentally cripple immigration enforcement operations while the agency already has funding to continue its essential work, making their position purely obstructionist.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If ICE already has $75 billion in funding and can continue operations during the shutdown, why are you willing to keep other DHS employees unpaid and create airport security delays instead of accepting partial funding with some reforms now and negotiating additional reforms later?”
Left asks Right
“If you genuinely want to end the shutdown and help unpaid DHS workers, why reject a proposal that funds 94% of the department and includes some reforms, especially when you could continue pushing for additional reforms through the normal legislative process?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
Progressive activists and some Squad members like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who have called for abolishing ICE entirely represent about 15-20% of the Democratic base, far more extreme than the reform demands described here.
Right Fringe
House Freedom Caucus members and hardline Trump supporters who want to completely defund DHS rather than compromise represent about 25-30% of the Republican base, opposing even partial funding deals.
Noise Assessment
Moderate noise level - while both sides are using typical shutdown rhetoric, the core dispute over ICE reforms versus funding reflects genuine policy differences rather than pure performance.
Sources (10)
<p>Momentum toward <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/23/dhs-funding-house-senate-budget-talks-reconciliation" target="_blank">reopening DHS</a> evaporated Tuesday as Democrats drew a hard line on reforms to ICE, swiftly rejecting a proposal that GOP senators had only just persuaded President Trump to entertain.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> The Department of Homeland Security has been <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/02/12/shutdown-homeland-security-senate-negotiations" target="_blank">shut down</a> for more than five weeks — and the resistance from Democrats, paired with skepticism among some Republicans, including Trump, casts serious doubt on whether Congress can strike a deal this week.</p><hr /><ul><li>GOP senators had just <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/23/dhs-funding-house-senate-budget-talks-reconciliation" target="_blank">persuaded Trump</a> to back off his demands that the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/17/save-act-house-convervatives-revolt-anna-paulina-luna" target="_blank">SAVE America Act</a> be included in a DHS funding package, arguing that a narrower deal could pass the Senate.</li></ul><p><strong>But Democrats immediately shot down the latest proposal </strong>— and some Republicans framed it as a capitulation to Democrats.</p><ul><li>"Until we get the reforms that we want in ICE, we don't want to vote for ICE funding, knowing they already pre-funded it," Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told reporters, referencing the $75 billion ICE received in last year's "big, beautiful bill."</li><li>"I don't want to vote to defund ICE, and I don't want to vote to cut ICE's funding.… I would hope that we would not, as Republicans, be defunding ICE," Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. </li></ul><p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>Republicans sent Democrats a proposal Tuesday that would fund all of DHS except parts of ICE's enforcement operations. </p><ul><li>GOP leaders would then work to include additional funding for ICE in <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/19/pentagon-200-billion-reconciliation-house-republicans" target="_blank">reconciliation 2.0.</a></li><li>Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made clear that Democrats aren't budging without reforms to ICE — and that they plan on sending a counterproposal. </li><li>"Every one of my colleagues, every one, A: believes we should be unified, and, B: we need reforms of ICE — every single one."</li></ul><p><strong>The other side:</strong> "A lot of the reforms are contingent on funding for ICE," Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Tuesday afternoon.</p><ul><li>"If you're not going to have funding, I don't know how all of a sudden now you can demand reforms."</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out:</strong> Doubts about the proposal are coming from all sides: Conservative Republicans are uneasy with carving out ICE funding, and unconvinced that promises of future action through reconciliation will materialize. </p><ul><li>"I can't imagine why we're doing something where everybody in federal government is not getting paid while senators get paid," Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) told Axios.</li><li>And President Trump offered only lukewarm support: "We're going to take a good, hard look at it.… But I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it."</li></ul><p><strong>At the same time</strong>, promises to include the SAVE America Act in that same reconciliation bill have been met with deep skepticism and outrage from conservatives, who say it won't survive the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/06/23/senate-byrd-bath-parliamentarian-status-provisions" target="_blank">Senate's Byrd bath</a>. </p><ul><li>"This is gaslighting," the House Freedom Caucus <a href="https://x.com/freedomcaucus/status/2036446206126145927?s=20" target="_blank">posted</a> on X Tuesday.</li></ul><p><strong>What they're saying: </strong>"There is nowhere to go," Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told Axios of future negotiations, adding that Democrats keep moving the goalpost. "They proposed this, and we said OK."</p><ul><li>"Our guys can't agree to something and then have the Democrats back up and say 'Oh, well, now we want more things,'" Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) said.</li></ul><p><strong>Senate Democrats </strong>raised concerns that even partial ICE funding could enable the agency to shift money internally and expand enforcement without reforms.</p><p><strong>The intrigue:</strong> House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said a deal to fund all of DHS but ICE would likely get "strong Democratic support" in his chamber. </p><ul><li>That's not going to make resisting a deal in the Senate any easier for Schumer. </li></ul>
<p>House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington is in informal talks with Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham about a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/19/pentagon-200-billion-reconciliation-house-republicans" target="_blank">second reconciliation</a> bill to fund the Pentagon — and potentially DHS.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> With DHS talks stalled and a defense supplemental in limbo, reconciliation may be Republicans' only path forward.</p><hr /><ul><li>"I need to have a strong partner in the Senate, and I've got that with Lindsey," Arrington (R-Texas) told Axios on Monday. "He's been as enthusiastic as anybody … on a reconciliation 2.0."</li><li>"Reconciliation is the only path to a defense supplemental," he said, adding that he is open to adding DHS funding to any reconciliation bill. "I'm not opposed to it. … It's going to become a public safety issue."</li></ul><p><strong>The intrigue:</strong> Upon returning from the White House late Monday for talks on DHS funding, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) suggested that she and her Republican colleagues had made real progress on funding DHS. </p><ul><li>Asked if they found a DHS solution, <a href="https://x.com/TylerOlson1791/status/2036226684702105852" target="_blank">she said "we do,"</a> without providing any other details. </li><li>Britt was part of a group of Senate Republicans, including Graham, who were <a href="https://x.com/LibbeyDean_/status/2036190846249284057" target="_blank">spotted at the White House</a> on Monday evening.</li></ul><p><strong>State of play:</strong> Earlier in the day, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) called funding DHS via reconciliation an <a href="https://x.com/LauraEWeiss16/status/2036168614454370378" target="_blank">"option"</a> on Monday. </p><ul><li>Graham (R-S.C.) is gathering his GOP members for a meeting early this week to discuss a second reconciliation bill, Punchbowl News reported.</li><li>"I'd like regular order, but I'm ready to go on reconciliation," Graham said over the weekend of supplemental funding for Iran. "We need to do another one, no matter what."</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom in:</strong> Trump said Sunday he won't make a deal with Democrats to reopen DHS until they pass the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/17/save-act-house-convervatives-revolt-anna-paulina-luna" target="_blank">SAVE America Act</a>, the GOP's signature election bill.<strong> </strong></p><ul><li>The Senate is entering week two of its "extended debate" on the SAVE Act, but it's all but certain to fail. </li><li>The president also rejected Thune's request Sunday to strip out money for ICE and fund the agency through reconciliation.<strong> </strong></li><li>On the broad shutdown debate, President Trump has been urging Republicans to hold out: "Don't settle. … We have something bigger."</li></ul><p><strong>What they're saying:</strong> Arrington and GOP leaders are pitching a broader package — but one that must be paid for.</p><ul><li>"It won't just be defense. … It has to have offsets in savings," Arrington said. "We have a boatload of savings from fraud and improper payments." </li><li>Arrington has also <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/19/pentagon-200-billion-reconciliation-house-republicans" target="_blank">floated</a> using tariff revenue and changes to Affordable Care Act cost-sharing reduction payments as potential offsets.</li><li>Conservatives <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/03/19/pentagon-200-billion-reconciliation-house-republicans" target="_blank">welcomed the idea</a> of adding funding for Iran to reconciliation 2.0, but they also made clear it would need to be paid for. </li></ul><p><strong>The bottom line:</strong> The window for passing a reconciliation bill is closing.</p><ul><li>"We've probably got 60 to 90 days at best," Arrington said. "You've got to have this thing wrapped up before July 4."</li></ul><p><em>Editor's note: This story has been updated to include new comments from Sen. Katie Britt.</em></p>
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