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Chuck Schumer, the Senate\u2019s top Democrat, on Wednesday demanded that legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) include a ban on wearing masks and other reforms aimed at federal agents involved in immigration enforcement, setting up a clash with Republicans that could see the government partially shut down in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Congress is racing to head off a lapse in federal funding from beginning after Friday, and the Senate\u2019s Republican leaders plan to hold a key procedural vote Thursday on both the DHS funding measure and five bills that authorize spending by several other government departments.<\/p>\n
But following the weekend killing of US citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, Schumer called for the DHS bill to be rewritten and voted on separately<\/a>. On Wednesday, he announced that Democrats had \u201cunited\u201d on a \u201cset of common sense and necessary policy goals that we need to rein in ICE and end the violence\u201d.<\/p>\n These include a prohibition on patrols by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and a mandate that they coordinate with local and state police; the imposition of a uniform code of conduct and requirement of independent investigations into violations; and a ban on mask wearing by federal agents, along with a rule that they wear body cameras and carry identification.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are common sense reforms, ones that America Americans know and expect of law enforcement,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cIf Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order, plain and simple. They are choosing to protect ICE from accountability over American lives.\u201d<\/p>\n At a press conference held shortly before Schumer unveiled the Democrats\u2019 demands, Senate majority leader John Thune signaled openness to discussing reforms to ICE with Democrats, but no change in the GOP\u2019s plans to begin voting on the spending bills Thursday. All six were approved by the House of Representatives last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cDemocrats have objected, and so we\u2019re anxious to hear what their demands are, what their requests are, what their asks are. I think the administration is willing to sit down with them and have a discussion, perhaps a negotiation about how do we move forward,\u201d Thune said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the one thing I do know\u2026 is that a government shutdown is not in anybody\u2019s interest.\u201d<\/p>\n The Republican leader added that the DHS funding bill includes less money for ICE than what the Trump administration had requested, as well as funds for body cameras for agents and \u201cde-escalation training\u201d, which he called \u201cthings that Democrats have said that they wanted\u201d.<\/p>\n