Senate Democrats spent five weeks playing hardball over funding the Department of Homeland Security. Now, with ICE agents winning over airport travelers and key Republicans strategizing with the White House, it looks as if Democrats are starting to cave.
According to a new report from Punchbowl News, Democrats are signaling they might accept a deal — one that funds most of the department, but carves out ICE migrant removal operations. Republicans, rather than folding, are preparing to fund those ICE operations themselves through a party-line reconciliation bill.
For the first time in more than a month, there’s optimism that the Senate and the White House can finally find a path to reopening the Department of Homeland Security. Key Senate Republicans returned from the White House late Monday with a noticeably upbeat demeanor over the state of the talks with President Donald Trump, who had just rebuffed a GOP-backed off-ramp.
The framework under discussion would fund all of DHS except for ICE’s migrant removal operations, and could eventually include some reforms that Democrats have been demanding.
Republicans would then try to fund the rest of ICE via a party-line reconciliation bill.