Schumer Makes Bold Immigration Enforcement Demands As Shutdown Odds Increase

The partisan battle lines are being drawn as a federal government shutdown on Friday appears increasingly likely.

Democrats have said that they want the DHS funding bill separate from other spending bills, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a list of immigration-related demands on Wednesday during a press conference on Capitol Hill, including no more masking of agents, no “roving patrols,” and more accountability measures like body cameras and clearer identification of authorities.

“No more anonymous agents. No more secret operatives,” he said, claiming that Democrats are “united” behind the proposals.

“These are common-sense reforms – ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Schumer continued.

“Let me be clear: Democrats stand ready today to pass the five bipartisan bills in the Senate, but the DHS bill needs serious work,” he said. Some Democrats were invited to the White House to discuss ways to avert a shutdown, but they did not take the offer up, according to Fox News.

In addition, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has posted on X that he will not support DHS funding until key Trump adviser Stephen Miller is fired from the White House. Many Democrats and a small number of Trump-critical Republicans, such as Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Thom Tillis (NC), have publicly stated they would like to see leadership changes made following the Alex Pretti shooting in Minneapolis amid Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge.

As for Republicans, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) indicated that there is some GOP support for separating the DHS funding component from the other spending bills needed to keep the federal government funded, according to The Hill.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said a lot of the discussion about dividing up the spending bills to isolate the DHS funds is “all hypotheticals at this point. And I would reserve optionality to consider that,” Fox News reported.

“But I think the best path forward, as I said, is to keep the package intact […] if the bill goes back to the House of Representatives […] who knows what happens with it over here,” he continued. However, the lawmaker said he wants to get the six spending bills approved without the legislation needing to go back to the House, which is out of session this week anyway.

Earlier this week, Senate Republican Conference Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) pushed back against the possibility of a “mob veto” by Democrats, as the administration warns that a lapse in funding will harm the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Much of the funding for the president’s immigration goals was already signed into law in July under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

If the government does close, it would be the second time in just three months — and some are still recovering from the nation’s longest government shutdown, which lasted for 43 days in the fall. That shutdown revolved around Affordable Care Act subsidies — and a solution still has not been reached on that front.