Morning all. Big day for contacting your Senators. Senate Republicans seem to be ready to do more to rein in DHS-ICE. It’s why we need to keep the pressure on.
As we discussed in yesterday’s post Senator Chris Murphy told Greg Sargent Dems were coalescing around a series of meaningful reforms:
I think we also need to be fighting for at least three more things in the negotiations.
First, we need to do something to define ICE’s mission, and to stop the targeting, harassing and deporting of people here in the US legally. If the priority is removing migrants with criminal records, as Trump has been repeating again and again, terrific. Let them work with the states to do that. But that’s not what’s happening on the ground - ICE is attempting to remove all undocumented immigrants, and is deporting legal migrants too. Why does this matter? For at current rates of removal, this campaign, with ICE terrorizing communities, could take 10-15 years, leaving these terror campaign in our cities and towns indefinitely. Trump-Vance-Miller view ICE as a permanent occupying force to committed to removing 10-20m people over many years. It’s why they need to build all those massive detention centers funded in the big ugly bill.
In the coming debate we have to more forcefully challenge the charade that their policy is about removing criminals. It’s never been about that. For if it is really only about removing criminals all this extra funding ICE has received in the big ugly isn’t needed. It is only needed to execute permanent occupations of our communities, and the threats and shakedowns that Bondi articulated this past weekend. The reason they keep lying about what they are doing is that they know, particularly after everything that has happened, that the public will not support a decade-long campaign of permanent occupation and terror. They’ve already lost that argument. And it’s why we have to keep pressing our leaders to fight as hard as they can in the coming days - for as we keep discussing, Republicans are increasingly weary, and wary, of defending the indefensible - and there is no way to defend their plan to have a decade of Minnesotas.
The second thing we should be demanding is for Stephen Miller to leave government. He is the architect of the terror campaign, as he was a prime architect of the outrageous and damaging attempt to seize Greenland from Europe. Noem, Bovino, Homan, Bondi are all expendable middle managers. They are there to be tossed aside when shit goes sideways. Miller is the boss, with enthusiastic support from JD “absolute immunity” Vance. The Minnesota and Greenland escalations have been a Trump-Vance-Miller play, and that’s where our attention should be.
The third is that there must be either independent or Congressional oversight of the conditions inside the detention camps.
For the current state of play on the Senate talks here’s Punchbowl News this morning. And to be very clear it is just unbelievable that after years of Continuing Resolutions and budget chaos/failure, and with this critical Friday deadline already a wildly dysfunctional third of the way into the new fiscal year, that The Cowardly Speaker once again sent his Members home, making getting to any final deal without a shutdown almost impossible. I’ve been here a long time and I still can’t believe Johnson walked away from this process at its most important moment. From Punchbowl this am, and note how fluid everything is (why these calls matter!!!!):
A reckoning. Senate Republicans returned to Washington remarkably clear-eyed about the dismal state of President Donald Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown. Now comes the hard part — navigating a procedural morass to rein in DHS and avert a government shutdown on Friday night.
The unusually adversarial posture from GOP senators has fueled an overwhelmingly bipartisan consensus that something needs to change after federal immigration agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on Saturday. It was the second such deadly shooting by federal agents and has sparked an intense national uproar.
So there appears to be a bipartisan will to get something done. The substance will be a challenge.
One of the major problems for Senate GOP leaders and the White House is procedural: Securing those reforms in legislation without triggering a partial government shutdown or forcing a volatile House to re-vote on the massive FY2026 funding package.
No sugarcoating. Even some of Trump’s closest Senate allies, who back the nationwide ICE operations, acknowledged the need for reforms, arguing that the crackdown is now harming public safety.
“We’re at a situation where this just isn’t safe,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said. “It’s not safe for anybody. It’s not safe for bystanders. It’s not safe for law enforcement.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) warned that the GOP is losing trust with the American public “on an issue that we should be winning on.”
Senators are racing against the clock, though, with just two days until funding runs out for the vast majority of the federal government. Senate Republicans and Democrats will meet separately for lunch today. The first procedural vote on government funding is slated for Thursday.
Despite the time crunch, there was a surprising bit of optimism from senators at the center of the current cross-aisle talks. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), a top appropriator, said the discussion has been “constructive,” adding: “I think we should be able to land this.”
“Nobody has said, ‘That’s ridiculous,’” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said of her conversations with Republicans. “But the question is: Is there the will to actually make it happen?”
Procedural roadblocks. We asked several senators from both parties Tuesday night if they’ve heard ideas on how to codify DHS reforms without needing additional House action on the broader funding measure. None could spell one out.
Senate GOP leaders are facilitating conversations between senior Democrats and the White House in an attempt to determine whether any of the Democrats’ demands can be addressed without requiring Congress. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made clear on Tuesday that these reforms must be enacted into law because Democrats can’t trust Trump to follow through on executive action.
“We are going to offer very reasonable ideas,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who’s been rallying Democrats on the issue. “We understand the whole problem can’t be solved. But it’s going to have to be [legislative] language.”
“You cannot trust this administration,” added Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.). “My Republican colleagues need to grow a goddamn spine.”
As we noted Monday, Senate GOP leaders and the White House don’t believe House Republicans can pass the funding package again, which would be needed if the Senate revises the measure in any way. Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned that this would be a “risky proposition,” but said Saturday’s shooting was “an inflection point and an opportunity” to reevaluate DHS policies and procedures.
“There are some things that can be done,” Thune said, referring to DHS reforms. “But I think they probably can be done independent of having to put it into the language of the bill, and therefore requiring it to have to go back to the House.”
The Trump factor. The White House believes that Trump’s decision to “de-escalate” in Minnesota is a sign of good faith. Administration officials’ preference is for the Senate to craft a separate bill with DHS reforms while passing the funding package. With Trump’s imprimatur, officials believe they can get that second DHS-centric bill through the House. It will be a humongous lift either way.
But Senate Democrats are also very unlikely to have faith in Speaker Mike Johnson’s ability to get that second bill through the House, even with Trump’s backing.
In the meantime, Thune is still waiting for Democrats to formalize their list of proposed changes to the DHS funding bill. Thune and other Republicans noted that the measure already includes new money for body cameras, for example.
Another challenge is that stripping the DHS measure from the broader funding package would likely require unanimous consent, and some Republicans are reluctant to green-light a process that could lead to new restrictions on federal agents.
“There’s already reforms in it, so what else do you want?” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said. “What I’m not going to do is handcuff the agents from doing their job.”
For more see yesterday’s post The Fight Ahead Of Us Is Not About Reining In ICE. It’s About Reining In Trump.
We need to be loud today, everyone. Very, very loud.
A recording of my talk last night and other notes are coming later this morning - Simon
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