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Congressional Democrats consider the Senate-passed plan to end the Homeland Security shutdown a victory, but they’re walking away empty-handed with none of their sought-after reforms to immigration enforcement.
Pushing for sweeping changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of a pair of fatal shootings in Minnesota is why Democrats blocked more than a half-dozen attempts to prevent or end the second-longest shutdown in U.S. history.
But the window of opportunity to secure any reforms slammed shut just after 2 a.m. Friday.
DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., returns to the U.S. Capitol Building on March 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“I mean, I think that ship has sailed, and they kind of kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said.
At the onset of the shutdown in early February, Schumer and Democrats presented 10 categories of reforms they wanted to be implemented for ICE and immigration enforcement in order to earn their votes to fund DHS.
The proposals were in response to the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good and were designed to drastically rein in the power of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.
HOUSE CONSERVATIVES RAGE AGAINST SENATE DHS SHUTDOWN DEAL
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that Republicans had made what was likely their “final” offer to Democrats to reopen DHS. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Among them were requiring judicial warrants for agents, forcing agents to unmask, requiring agents to display identification, ending roving patrols, preventing agents from operating in certain areas like schools and hospitals, requiring body-worn cameras, increasing oversight of detention centers tied to funding, and…
