Jeffries says Democrats won't pass DHS deal without ICE reforms

María Paula Mijares Torres and Emily Forgash, Bloomberg News on Feb 8, 2026

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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats are insisting on their full list of demands to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement before agreeing to pass the remaining government funding for the Department of Homeland Security before the Friday deadline.

“We need to press forward aggressively and ensure that there are legislative changes enacted as part of any DHS spending bill because that’s the way that you change behavior,” Jeffries said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “Dramatic changes are necessary to the manner in which the Department of Homeland Security officers are conducting themselves before any funding bill should move forward.”

Jeffries and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer listed 10 restrictions they want placed on ICE and Border Patrol in a letter late Wednesday to House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

The demands include prohibiting DHS officers from entering private property without a judicial warrant, verifying individuals aren’t U.S. citizens before detaining them, requiring agents to wear body cameras and identification badges, and preventing them from covering their faces.

“ICE is completely and totally out of control,” Jeffries said. “They have gone way too far, and the American people want them reined in because immigration enforcement should be fair, it should be just and it should be humane.”

Democratic Senator John Fetterman said he doesn’t see a political way out of a funding halt for DHS before the deadline. “I absolutely would expect that it’s going to shut down,” he said on Fox News’ "Sunday Morning Futures."

Thune dismissed Democrats’ list of demands as political messaging rather than an opening bid in negotiations on a funding deal. Thune said he’s willing to strike a deal, but called the demands “unrealistic.”

Senator Katie Britt, a Republican from Alabama, said the demands are “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands for the press.”

“This is NOT negotiating in good faith, and it’s NOT what the American people want,” Britt said in a social media post last week. She is the head negotiator with Democrats in the Senate Appropriations panel over a DHS deal.

If Congress doesn’t reach an agreement on DHS funding by the end of the week, the department faces another shutdown that would affect Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard. While there is some ICE funding that would be affected in a potential shutdown, the agency has $75 billion approved for its use from the major spending bill enacted in July.

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