WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans have hardly begun negotiations for a deal to overhaul federal immigration enforcement, but they’re already accusing each other of negotiating in “bad faith.”

Before leaving Washington for the weekend, lawmakers checked some business off their list, passing a package to reopen the government after a four-day partial shutdown. But they also punted on the Homeland Security Department funding bill, meaning they now must iron out seemingly irreconcilable differences.

They’ve made very little progress in the days since — an indication that they might not meet the Feb. 13 deadline, when current stopgap Homeland Security funding is set to expire.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday he’s already prepping another short-term DHS funding patch for the floor next week.

“I don’t know how you — if they agree on something today, if you have to go through the procedural, file all the things we have to do over here in the Senate — how we would ever get it done by next week,” he said.

Democrats have thrown cold water on the idea of another continuing resolution over concern it would incentivize negotiators to drag out the talks. When asked about a CR, Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said if Republicans “can’t go along” with his party’s proposal for tighter restrictions on federal immigration agents, they shouldn’t “count on our votes.”

But the two parties haven’t gotten any closer to a deal. Republicans have already shot down several key provisions of Democrats’ list of 10 demands released Wednesday night, which Democrats argue are necessary checks on federal immigration enforcement after two citizens were fatally shot by agents in Minnesota last month. Schumer said Democrats would release legislative text of their proposal Thursday night.

Among the demands are provisions to stop DHS agents from wearing masks, entering private property for enforcement activities without judicial warrants and making arrests at “sensitive” locations like schools. Thune called them “totally unrealistic.”

Republicans say requiring agents to remove their masks and show identification could expose them to doxing from protesters who are eager to target immigration officials. They also say a requirement for judicial warrants, as opposed to administrative ones, would be impractical and make an immigration crackdown nearly impossible.

“Democrats’ newest proposal is a ridiculous Christmas list of demands for the press,” Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee chair who’s spearheading talks for Republicans, wrote in a post. “This is NOT negotiating in good faith, and it’s NOT what the American people want.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to spell out President Donald Trump’s list of non-starters for negotiations, but added Trump administration officials will engage in “direct” talks with Senate Democrats.

As Thursday rolled on, the two parties couldn’t even agree on whether negotiations had officially begun.

“Senator Britt has reached out multiple times now to Senator Schumer or whomever he wants to negotiate on his behalf, and it’s been crickets over there,” Thune said.

When asked about GOP claims that his party isn’t cooperating, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, pushed back, saying “they literally haven’t even responded on substance.” Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., said earlier Thursday they were still waiting to hear from Republicans.

“Ask the Republicans, the Republicans don’t have their act together. Number one, it’s on them,” Schumer said. “And second, our appropriations committees are talking.”

Republicans, for their part, sought to increase the pressure on Democrats to pass a bill that avoids a department shutdown. The GOP-controlled House Appropriations Committee scheduled a hearing for next week on the impact of a Homeland Security shutdown.

House Democrats, meanwhile, were considering drafting a bill to provide full-year funding for all agencies housed under DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection in an effort to mitigate the impact of a government shutdown if no immigration deal is reached.

House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said Thursday she supports splitting up DHS funding to bar funding for immigration agencies. It’s not clear if Republicans are interested in the idea, although some have indicated they wouldn’t support a similar proposal to pass a short-term stopgap bill.

Although DHS and the threat of a continued government shutdown took center stage this week, a storm on voter identification laws and election nationalization brewed in the background.

A bill known as the SAVE Act has become a rallying cry for House Republicans in recent days, with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., and others threatening to hold up unrelated action on the House floor if the Senate didn’t take it up.

The measure would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, a proposal backed by Trump. But Democrats have vowed to block the bill in the Senate, saying it would disenfranchise millions of otherwise eligible voters who may lack a birth certificate or passport.

Luna backed down from her threatened rebellion, sounding hopeful that Thune would find a way to boost the bill’s chances in the Senate by using a so-called talking filibuster, requiring Democrats to hold the floor continuously to block the measure. But Thune cast doubt on that strategy, saying it could rob too much precious floor time needed for other legislative priorities.

A revamped version of the bill, dubbed the SAVE America Act, is supposed to get a vote on the House floor next week, according to its sponsor Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, although it has yet to make it on the Rules Committee schedule.

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