The Department of Homeland Security is at risk of shutting down next week as leaders in both parties dig in their heels amid negotiations to reform immigration operations while also ensuring full-year funding for other agencies covered by the department.
If DHS shutters, it would leave several federal agencies without funding that are unrelated to border security. Those include FEMA, the Transportation Security Administration, the U.S. Coast Guard, and more.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., expressed skepticism toward his Democratic colleagues to craft a bipartisan deal with the White House, suggesting instead that the minority party is more interested in political posturing than finding a compromise. Thune said he had not yet received Democrats’ formal list of demands as of Wednesday morning but has been engaged in conversations with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., as those are drafted.
“I think that’s an indication, at least to me, that they’re still trying to figure out what they want to do here,” Thune said on Wednesday. “The idea that they would set this up and try it with a two-week deadline — it just, it makes absolutely no sense.”
The House passed the most recent spending deal on Tuesday to fund the entirety of the federal government with the exception of DHS, which is temporarily extended to Feb. 13. That gives lawmakers just nine days to negotiate the funding package — the final appropriations bill for the 2026 fiscal year.
But that is shaping up to be easier said than done as Democrats demand major changes to Trump’s immigration operations that Republicans have brushed off as unserious proposals.
Schumer met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Tuesday to consolidate their demands into one piece of legislation, which is expected to be released “within the next 24 hours,” the Democratic leaders said.
Those demands include mandatory body cameras, no masks, judicial warrants to carry out arrests, ensuring the right to sure, requiring identification, and prohibiting ICE agents from detaining or deporting U.S. citizens. Once the reform legislation is released, Democrats are expected to negotiate directly with the White House.
“We’re ready to sit down and negotiate,” Schumer said on Wednesday. “But it’s got to be strong. It’s got to be tough. It’s got to rein in ICE in very serious ways and end the violence. And we hope our Republican colleagues will meet us on that.”
But several of those demands, such as mask-wearing and visible identification, have already been rejected by top Republican leaders who say their Democratic counterparts were not operating in good faith.
“(Jeffries is) just not, and I think he and, for that matter, leader Schumer, both are afraid of their shadows,” Thune said. “They’re getting a lot of blowback and pressure from their left. So I don’t think they want to, particularly in (Jeffries’) case, I don’t think he wants to make a deal at all. I think he wants the issue.”
Jeffries pushed back against that assessment, accusing Thune of cowering to President Donald Trump in his own demands.
“Leader Thune is afraid of his own shadow,” Jeffries said. “This is a guy who said he was not going to break up the six appropriations bills. He then broke up the six appropriations bills when he was ordered to do so by Donald Trump.”
While both sides appear far apart in talks, Democratic leaders must also grapple with internal disagreements within their own caucus — even between Schumer and Jeffries themselves.
The pair sought to project unity during a joint press conference on Wednesday, telling reporters they are “on the same page” when it comes to proposed ICE reforms. But the two already voted different ways on the temporary DHS extension when Schumer supported the most recent compromise spending package and Jeffries voted against it.
Jeffries was also excluded from negotiations between Senate Democrats and the White House to draft that compromise bill in the first place, but the two leaders sidestepped questions on whether that could lead to differences in opinion.
“We remained in close contact over the last several days, as we will continue to do,” Jeffries said.
It’s not clear how lawmakers will proceed if a deal is not brokered before the Feb. 13 deadline. If nothing is passed, federal funding for DHS will lapse.
Thune said he would be open to another two- or three-week extension, but only if substantial progress is made before then. If not, the Senate Republican leader say he would push to extend funding through the end of the fiscal year — something Democratic leaders said they would not support.