Congress

Democrats confront an ICE dilemma: To rein it in, they have to fund it

Published

8 months ago

January 14, 2026

New calls to “defund ICE” are reverberating through the Democratic Party following last week’s deadly shooting by a federal agent in Minneapolis. Behind the scenes, top Democrats are feverishly working to fund the agency — with strings attached.

The mismatch between the anti-ICE rhetoric and the actions of Democratic appropriators reflects a Catch-22 of congressional power: The only way lawmakers can put guardrails on the controversial agency and curb President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda at this moment is to hand it billions of taxpayer dollars.

As they negotiate fiscal 2026 funding for the Department of Homeland Security with Republicans ahead of a Jan. 30 shutdown deadline, Democrats are demanding new rules for DHS agents, such as forcing them to use body cameras, refrain from wearing masks and go through more extensive training.

Even as new polling fielded after the fatal Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good shows that a plurality of voters back ICE’s elimination, top Democrats on Capitol Hill are seeking to restrain the agency under Trump’s leadership — not disband it.

“House Democrats want accountability and oversight of ICE,” Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the No. 3 Democratic leader, told reporters Tuesday. “They should have to continue to testify to Congress as to what they are doing. But more importantly, we need to look out for the American people right now. They are terrorizing people in the streets of this country.”

Among the rank-and-file, there is also a deep desire to rein in the agency. Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), deputy chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said in an interview his group supports “reforms” for the agency.

“It’s not the CHC’s position that we’re terminating ICE,” Soto said. “But there is a culture of violence that’s happening that does need to be addressed.”

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, meanwhile, announced Tuesday it had “adopted an official position” opposing new DHS funding “unless there are meaningful and significant reforms to immigration enforcement practices.”

It’s not clear what GOP leaders are willing to accept in return for the Democratic votes that will be necessary to pass any DHS funding bill. They have not publicly ruled out new rules for ICE, despite equating Democrats’ demands with support for lax immigration policies.

“Understand, what happened last week gave them more things to yell about,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters this week, referring to Democrats’ response to the shooting. “But they’ve been against ICE — and frankly, they’ve been for open borders, more importantly — for years as well.”

Part of a calculation for both sides is that the alternatives to a negotiated compromise are unsavory for each party. Democratic lawmakers are in no mood to default to a lengthy stopgap funding patch that would maintain the status quo on immigration enforcement and give the Trump administration more leeway to decide how the money is spent. And if Republicans refuse to enact restraints, they warn, funding for DHS could lapse altogether in a few weeks.

“The question is for Republicans: Are they willing to shut down the government simply to endorse the most lawless Department of Homeland Security in the history of the country?” Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security funding panel, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend.

Despite the tough rhetoric, Murphy showed a willingness to compromise in comments to reporters this week. Appropriators, he said, are “not going to write a comprehensive immigration enforcement reform bill” within the DHS funding measure.

“But in every bill there’s language on how our money is spent. And I want to make sure that our money is spent lawfully,” he continued. “So yes, we’re having conversations about how we can pass a bill — but a bill that makes sure that ICE is operating legally.”

One of the challenges for lawmakers is that Republicans already gave ICE billions of dollars within the party-line tax and spending package they enacted over the summer. The “big, beautiful bill” included $75 billion for the agency over the following decade, above and beyond the nearly $11 billion it was granted in the fiscal year that ended in September.

“It’s important to understand that a lot of the funding that’s being unleashed on the American people in such extreme ways right now was provided not through the traditional appropriations process,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters this week.

In spite of the major roadblocks to clinching a bipartisan funding deal, there are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who are interested in putting at least some fetters on immigration enforcement agencies.

The day after the fatal shooting in Minnesota, GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said footage of the killing was “deeply disturbing” and called for “policy changes to help prevent future tragedies” that would ensure ICE agents work “safely — and with empathy and respect for human life.”

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate objected to moving forward this week with the DHS funding bill, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said, forcing it to be stripped from a planned multibill package at the 11th hour.

“This one’s tricky, just simply because of the political situation,” Cole told reporters. “We’re trying to work with our colleagues. I know they’re trying to get a bill. But I’m very sensitive to the political challenges they have on this particular bill.”

Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) also acknowledged this week that “obviously the agency and some of its actions have raised questions lately,” adding that while a deal on DHS funding hasn’t yet been notched, “it doesn’t mean it won’t be eventually.”

Even before the shooting in Minnesota, lawmakers in both parties had agreed to new limits on the Trump administration’s ability to redirect DHS money to purposes other than what Congress prescribes.

Rep. Mark Amodei, the Nevada Republican who chairs the Homeland Security funding panel, told reporters last week that House and Senate appropriators are crafting the spending measure to make it “harder to make the money mobile.”

He called the Trump administration’s penchant for shifting around cash “bullshit” and acknowledged that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem would not be fond of the new restrictions.

On Tuesday, Amodei struck an upbeat note on the negotiations, saying the DHS bill is “progressing nicely.”

Calen Razor contributed to this report.

Congress

House Democrats watch closely as Hakeem Jeffries vows to rein in rogue members

Published

5 hours ago

September 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Democrats have spent the better part of two years looking on in glee as House Republicans have struggled to wrangle their narrow majority and enact a consensus agenda.

Now, eyeing a potentially small majority of their own, they are eager not to see the shoe quickly land on the other foot — which is why Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is under fierce internal pressure to crack down on a surprise rebellion this week.

The decision by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) and Jared Golden (D-Maine) to support a Republican procedural measure that would have otherwise failed — essentially bailing out Speaker Mike Johnson’s floor agenda — prompted Jeffries and fellow Democratic leaders to decry a “breach of trust” and promise a “serious response.”

Rank-and-file members are watching closely to see if Jeffries follows through on those threats and moves to rein in rogue members who could undermine the party agenda and his own leadership.

“If there’s no understanding that we need to stay together on procedural measures, then we’re going to be like Republicans,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Rules Committee Democrat and a Jeffries ally. “I mean, they can’t get anything done because everybody’s going off in different directions.”

Many Democrats are hoping Jeffries will set an assertive tone and send a message that some protest tactics will not be tolerated in a future majority. The situation is of particular interest to members given the slate of insurgent hard-left members poised to join the caucus next term — some of whom have openly discussed adopting strategies embraced by the hard right.

“It’s an open secret — we don’t want to end up with our own Freedom Caucus,” one House Democrat granted anonymity to speak candidly said in an interview, referring to the fractious ultraconservative group. “You see how a core group of people can stop the workings here … when it’s continual and it’s just about grandstanding. … We don’t want that.”

“I’m not saying that those folks coming in are going to operate in that way,” the member added. “We don’t know. But we’ve got to tighten up the systems.”

Already, House Democrats have competing views about how and when to punish the rogue members. Multiple members, for example, have privately suggested kicking Gluesenkamp Perez off of the Appropriations Committee — a highly coveted assignment.

Gluesenkamp Perez represents a district President Donald Trump won in 2024.

But others acknowledge that leaders have little leverage against the duo. Golden is leaving the House at the end of this term, and Gluesenkamp Perez is one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the country.

Keeping her seat in a district President Donald Trump won by 3 percentage points in 2024 could determine the outcome of the midterm elections, and she has made her clashes with party leaders a core part of her political identity.

Some members — including progressives who used procedural votes for leverage during Nancy Pelosi’s speakership — also cautioned leadership from overpolicing members.

Asked about how Jeffries should “punish” the members, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a former chair of the Progressive Caucus, said, “We’re not kids, and he’s not our dad.”

“I’m elected by 750,000 people. I get to make my decisions about what I want,” Jayapal said before adding, “At the same time, I think there has to be a strong commitment to the team.”

“I think that there can be certain reasonable expectations — for example, to flag how one may intend to vote on something,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said. “I also think that the idea that there will be consequences depending on how that is laid out could create a slippery slope.”

Both of the rebels are shrugging off the intense reaction from Democratic leaders and some of their colleagues. Golden said he voted with Republicans to advance a bill he cosponsored benefiting lobstermen in Maine; Gluesenkamp Perez said she voted to support Golden and “people who make their livelihoods and heritage on the water.”

“I do not have a polished political strategy,” she told reporters Wednesday. “I know my community, and that’s who sent me here, and that’s who I am thinking about.”

Many of their Democratic colleagues aren’t ready to just let it go, however. Several argued in interviews that if every member broke ranks on procedural votes to advance legislation they support, the party would lose significant leverage.

Golden, left, is retiring after his term ends.

“I am generally of the view that if you believe that you are a free agent in this town, maybe you don’t get to use the team locker room anymore,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said, adding that he could not think of a potential punishment “within the scope of what leadership can do that could be opposed by the caucus.”

Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) said “some tough love“ might be necessary to send a message to the broader caucus: “We’re all in this together.”

Amid the agita, it’s not clear how quickly Jeffries will act. An internal committee dealing with caucus rules met Wednesday and discussed the matter but did not advance any specific proposals for sanctions or rules changes.

Jeffries himself has not committed to a timeline for imposing consequences against the two defectors. He told reporters Wednesday he wants to pursue action “sooner rather than later” as he faces internal questions about whether he can exert the same level of control over Democrats as his predecessor did.

Pelosi dealt with rebellions of her own, including moderates who repeatedly voted with Republicans to amend Democratic bills on the floor. But she pointedly commented on the disloyalty on display this week, with Golden and Gluesenkamp Perez essentially voting to advance the GOP floor agenda.

“We didn’t even consider that anybody would do that,” she said Tuesday. “We never had that problem, so I’m disappointed that they did that.”

Another lawmaker who was happy to comment Wednesday was Johnson, who has routinely contended with GOP mutinies during his time in office — including one that Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden bailed him out of Tuesday.

Jeffries “has a serious problem in his caucus,” he told reporters, citing the “warring factions in his party.”

“I don’t see a way out of that thicket,” he said. “But I’m not going to tell him how to govern his conference, and he doesn’t, or shouldn’t, be telling me how to.”

Congress

Tillis renews calls for Hegseth’s ouster

Published

10 hours ago

September 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Thom Tillis renewed his call for President Donald Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, following the resignation earlier this week of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

“I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country,” the outgoing two-term North Carolina Republican wrote on X. “He is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.”

Driscoll, whose long-rumored resignation became official this week, had clashed with Hegseth over the Defense secretary’s reluctance to modernize the Army and his firings of dozens of senior officers. Hegseth has focused more on cultural issues — including grooming and fitness standards — within the department.

“If we had a @SecWar who maintained the same priorities and forward-thinking, he would be fighting to retain talented leaders like Dan and the many flag officers he has forced into retirement,” Tillis charged. “Instead, he is creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks.”

The White House and Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on Tillis’ post.

Tillis, who is not running for reelection in November, has openly clashed with Hegseth since Trump tapped the former Fox News host to lead the Pentagon in 2024.

In May, Tillis told POLITICO he believed Hegseth had misinformed Trump on the dynamics of a war in Iran. Firing Hegseth, he said, was on “a Christmas wish list.” In a book set to be released next month, Tillis branded Hegseth — along with a handful of other White House officials — as “MAGATS” and accused them of “not looking around corners and taking care of this president.”

It hasn’t earned him friends in the administration.

“The media said how brave he was to take me on, but he wasn’t brave, he was just the opposite – HE WAS A QUITTER!” Trump wrote on Truth Social in May. “Now he can have all the fun he wants for a few months, with some of his RINO friends, screwing the Republican Party. In the end it will only get bigger, and better, and stronger, than ever before!”

Congress

No immediate plans to punish rogue House Democrats for bailing out GOP

Published

11 hours ago

September 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Despite a stern message from party leaders, a panel of House Democrats did not settle on any particular consequences for the pair of lawmakers who crossed party lines Tuesday to advance an otherwise troubled slate of Republican-led bills.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and fellow leaders said the matter would be reviewed by the Democratic Committee on Caucus Rules, which convened Wednesday morning for a prescheduled listening session.

Attendees discussed possible changes to the rules that govern House Democrats’ conduct for next term. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), the panel’s chair, suggested to reporters that discussion included what should happen if members vote with Republicans on procedural measures like the one Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-Wash.) supported Tuesday.

“There’s been a variety of suggestions to change our rules, not just regarding the last couple days, but several suggestions that have been percolating for some time,” Levin said, while adding that any changes would happen only “in the next couple of months.”

The lack of urgency stands in contrast to the stern statement Jeffries and fellow leaders made Tuesday about the rogue members’ “breach of trust” — not to mention the rage some rank-and-file House Democrats are expressing. Some have floated removing the pair from their committees — particularly Gluesenkamp Perez’ seat on the exclusive Appropriations panel.

“Somebody else who is willing to think about other people needs to be on that seat, that exclusive committee,” said one House Democrat granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Jeffries, who was not present at the meeting, also seemed to have a speedier timeline for responding to Gluesenkamp Perez and Golden. He told reporters after the meeting wrapped that he was waiting on feedback from Levin and that the caucus would have conversations “amongst the family about the best way to move forward.”

Asked about his timeline for action against the pair, Jeffries said, “Sooner rather than later.”