Senate Dems reject GOP's best offer to reopen DHS with partial funding of ICE

Senate Democrats have rejected an offer from the GOP in Congress that would fund the Department of Homeland Security while also not fully funding ICE. The Democrats refusal to fund DHS has caused a 39-day partial government shutdown leaving TSA agents working without pay and snarling traffic at the nation's airports.

According to The Hill, Democrats rejected the deal from the Senate GOP and said they would be sending a counteroffer. “We have to rein in ICE and stop the violence. We need reform,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a press conference on Tuesday. “Every one of my colleagues, every one, A: believes we should be unified, and, B: we need reforms of ICE — every single one.”

The Democrats have been preventing the full funding of DHS as the lawmakers take issue with enforcement of immigration law. This has caused them to hold up funding for the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, including the agency that keeps airports safe from terrorist threats. Schumer added that the deal “does not have any reforms in ICE,” but negotiations continue.

"They sent us an offer, and we’ll be sending them an offer back, and I can assure you it will contain significant reform in it," he added. According to the New York Times, the deal that was proposed funded DHS but would not fund the portion of ICE that is tasked with arresting and deporting illegal immigrants in the country.

Despite negotiations going on for over a month, the Democrats, GOP, and White House have not come to agreement about how to move forward. President Donald Trump deployed ICE agents to help out with airport security on Monday as TSA has been facing high call-out numbers.

Democrats have demanded tighter restrictions on ICE as well as the use of judicial warrants in order to make arrests of illegal immigrants instead of administrative warrants. An administrative warrant is signed by an immigration officer instead of a judge.