Overcoming opposition from right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats, the House reached a compromise to pass the budget bill and the Continuing Resolution (CR). The agreement funds all departments except the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). If the parties don’t reach a compromise on a funding bill for DHS, its funding will cease on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.
Still, ICE will receive an additional $20 billion per year for operations and detention costs under the previously approved Big Beautiful Bill. However, other DHS agencies, such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), will not be funded.
Democrats have outlined new rules governing immigration enforcement operations. The rules would apply to both ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection). Federal agents from ICE killed Renee Good, and CBP agents killed Alex Pretti.
Republicans are divided on how they should respond to the proposed changes. Some want federal agents to continue to wear masks. More of them have opposed using Judicial warrants because it would require agents to obtain a court’s approval to use various tactics, such as entering people’s homes or workplaces.
Democrats were able to secure this brief period to present their changes and force the Republicans to justify their opposition because President Trump pulled back from his usual attacks on protesters when he reluctantly recognized that ICE’s aggressive and likely illegal actions have sparked a tsunami of protests across the nation.
The day after Pretti was killed, YouGov conducted a poll and found that a majority (57%) of Americans somewhat or strongly disapproved of the way ICE handles its job. That finding aligned with a Fox News Poll taken around the time of Pretti’s death, which found that 59% of voters said ICE was too aggressive.
Although polls show that Trump’s MAGA base overwhelmingly supports ICE’s actions, a large share of independent voters does not. These are the folks who can swing November’s congressional elections toward Democratic victories – perhaps enough to capture control of the House. And ICE’s reputation is so poor that nearly half of Independents (47% vs. 35%) would support eliminating it, according to a YouGov poll.
With public opinion disapproving of ICE tactics, Democrats have broad support for their four modest demands that the two DHS agencies adopt procedures common in many police departments. First, they must use judicial warrants, not administrative warrants. The latter are issued by military personnel appointed as administrative judges, often with no prior experience in civil administration. The Department of Justice removed the requirement that such judges have specific, extensive experience in immigration law, allowing the Department of Defense to use its officers as judges. This practice allows DHS agents to bypass civil court to obtain approval to enter a home without the owner’s permission.
DOJ asked up to 600 military lawyers to serve as temporary immigration judges for six-month stints, which can be renewed. If it is argued that this practice was necessary because there are not enough immigration judges available, it must be noted that the Trump administration has fired dozens of immigration judges, even as the immigration courts face a backlog of nearly 3.5 million cases, according to data collected by a Syracuse University research center.
Second, the agencies must cease their roving patrols that search for anyone they believe might be an immigrant, and therefore possibly undocumented. Often, they base their stops on a person’s skin color. Consequently, American citizens have been detained without due process unless they can quickly prove they are citizens.
Critics of the DHS site argue that the extremely high number of immigrants Trump wants DHS to deport serves as an incentive to maximize detentions and arrests. Given numerous examples of citizens being pulled from their cars, workplaces, and homes without evidence that the person poses a threat to public safety, the agencies need to maintain a public record of each incident.
Third, there must be a universal code of conduct to govern federal law enforcement officers’ use of force. In this demand, it’s unclear how this code would differ from the protocol that agents ignored when they shot and killed Pretti and Reed. White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said the agents had not followed it. Did Miller assume there was one, or did he read it and know they had violated it? When the negotiations occur, Miller should be invited to share what he suggests for the code, since he believed their conduct was in violation of some kind of rules.
Fourth, federal officers should not wear masks and should be required to wear body cameras and proper identification. To be effective, these requirements must clearly specify the conditions under which they apply. Body cameras must be left on during any action that initiates a detention or arrest. Officers must wear visible, identifiable name tags on their vests. Many cities have adopted these practices for their police officers, subject to reasonable exceptions.
While these negotiations are essential to mitigate ICE practices, they will not address the dire conditions in privately operated detention centers. Over the past 13 months, 32 ICE detainees have died, most due to a failure to provide medical and mental health care. Of the 66,000 detainees, approximately three-quarters had no criminal convictions, and many who do are convicted of only minor offenses, such as traffic violations. The Cato Institute’s review of ICE bookings shows that only 5% of all detainees had a violent criminal conviction.
The problem the Democrats face is that while 57 percent of voters disapprove of how ICE enforces immigration laws, those voters are unlikely to be from the rural districts, which are the Republicans’ voter base. Additionally, no polls show that the majority of voters oppose enforcing immigration regulations, even though a bare majority recently would support eliminating ICE. Voters are outraged by ICE tactics, but it would be a stretch to believe they do not want some restrictions on immigration.
Democrats have recognized this distinction in Biden’s attempt to rationalize the immigration process, which Republicans opposed. Meanwhile, Republicans have shown that they feel comfortable breaking laws to advance mass deportations of immigrants.
There is an opportunity now for Democrats to be the reasonable party that offers workable, just solutions for integrating immigrants into America. Even if Democrats succeed in altering ICE practices, they need to continue challenging the assumptions and misinformation Trump uses to promote a narrow nationalist agenda that disregards basic American values.
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