The NPR Politics Podcast
Senate Dems demand immigration enforcement reforms before funding DHS
27 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast for Tuesday, January 27th. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.
I'm Sam Greenglass. I cover Congress. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
And we are recording this at 1.10 p.m. Eastern Time. And today on the show, Congress may be headed toward a partial government shutdown. Last week, it seemed like lawmakers were on track to approve a package of bipartisan spending bills ahead of a government funding deadline at the end of the month. But that all changed after federal immigration officers failed.
killed 37-year-old Alex Preddy on Saturday. Senate Democrats now say they will not vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security without major changes to the bill. And that puts all of the other remaining funding measures in peril, too. So, Sam, what are Democrats asking for?
Yeah, so Democrats think there is an opportunity here to use the funding bill to rein in federal immigration tactics. They're asking for reforms like mandating warrants for immigration arrests, prohibiting immigration officers from concealing their identity, requiring officers to use body cameras and to stop raids at churches, hospitals, and schools.
There have been a bunch of ideas floated around, and those are just a handful of them.
Yeah, I mean, look, Democrats, which seems to be constant here, are under pressure to do something, especially with these videos of harsh immigration tactics by federal agents and these two lethal shootings in Minneapolis.
You know, there's been a lot of political pressure where Democrats are sometimes unfairly labeled as anemic or not able to do very much when, you know, frankly, life in the minority is just really hard.
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Chapter 2: What events led Senate Democrats to demand immigration reforms?
And this is a leverage point. A government funding bill is a leverage point. Sam, ICE and other immigration enforcement got a huge amount of money last summer in the one big beautiful bill act, President Trump's big signature accomplishment. So how does this fit with that? Like withholding funding from Homeland Security, would immigration enforcement really be affected by this fight?
Yeah, so that legislation gave ICE an additional $75 billion to use over four years. So even if there is a short-term shutdown here, it is not going to immediately stop this immigration crackdown. Democrats are saying they don't want to give the agency another $10 billion in base funding that's at stake here in this funding bill.
But really, this is a question not so much about the funding, but more about a chance to to extract some policy concessions that they could see as helping rein in the tactics being used by ICE and Customs and Border Protection right now in Minneapolis and in other cities.
I guess a question I have here is, why not just separate out the Homeland Security funding and then pass everything else? And then it wouldn't be such a major disruption.
Yeah, so that is actually exactly what Democrats want to do because otherwise, as you're alluding to there, a vote against Homeland Security funding would also mean a vote against funding for defense, for health, for transportation, and a whole bunch of other government agencies that would otherwise grind to a halt after Friday night if this funding runs out.
You know, in the House, Homeland Security was actually voted on separately from everything else. And that allowed all but seven Democrats to vote no without really sweating that vote so much. But in part to expedite things, the House sent a bunch of funding bills over to the Senate as one mega package. And that was actually not really expected to be a problem in the Senate.
And then the shooting on Saturday really upended everything. So far, Republican leadership have said they're not willing to pull these bills apart. And even if they did, it would require bringing the House back to sign off on all of it again. And the House is in recess until next week. And that's after this funding is expected to lapse.
And we know that there's a lot of the government will still be operating. But when you're thinking about things like FEMA funding from Federal Emergency Management Agency, with all of these storms that people are dealing with, certainly a lot of critical funding in there.
And it can be dangerous for politics for either side if one side's looking like they're doing something for political purposes when people are dealing with real issues right now.
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Chapter 3: What specific reforms are Senate Democrats asking for regarding immigration enforcement?
We're hearing Republicans looking at things that they can offer to Democrats outside of the context of this funding debate, things like executive orders, maybe a standalone immigration bill. But so far, Democrats are saying those promises are not sufficient and they're not going to back down from their position on withholding their votes for the funding bill.
Yeah, I mean, I guess this is the part where we talk about trust. And there's not a lot of it between the White House and congressional Democrats at this point. The White House has repeatedly done things like say that they don't actually have to do what Congress says. That has caused Democrats to question whether any deal would be worth the paper it's written on. So how do they work through that?
I mean, I think most congressional Democrats will tell you they've been given no real reason to trust the White House. For weeks, the administration was giving Congress certain assurances about Venezuela. And then, of course, many lawmakers felt blindsided after that operation a couple of weeks ago.
And so I think we're going to continue to see Democrats trying to press their case in the public sphere. Similar to what we saw in the last shutdown around the health care subsidies. Maybe it doesn't result in policy concessions, but it can keep the issue in the forefront of the public imagination.
I think that trust and assurances, as Sam talks about, are critically important to whether or not there is a partial government shutdown because we've seen some movement from the White House yesterday. specifically Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, who had been sort of the face of the immigration operations across the country.
He's not leading those enforcement efforts anymore in Minnesota after these two fatal shootings. We've seen Tom Holman, who Trump has referred to as his, quote, border czar, now supposed to be the person who's more the face of that. So in a normal sort of, you know, political environment, you might have the White House say to Democrats, we're making these changes.
Here's tactically what's going to be different. So please pass the funding because it's needed. That might work if you had an environment where there was any trust at all between Democrats and this White House.
Yeah. I mean, the thing that just really stands out to me here is A week ago, we were not talking about a partial government shutdown. A week ago, it seemed like things were almost working and just how quickly that has changed. Sam, does anybody really want a government shutdown?
I think there's still a lot of heartburn from the last one, which was not very long ago and was a record long 43 days. But you did see a real shift in a very short period of time. Last week, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee was saying that she was going to support this funding package despite her concerns about federal immigration enforcement tactics.
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Chapter 4: How do recent shootings impact the funding negotiations for DHS?
You also saw A couple of the House Democrats, the seven who voted in favor of the Homeland Security funding last week, one of them came out and said he regretted that decision and now sees it as kind of a moral check on the actions of the administration.
And then one other thing you see, you know, a handful of Democrats who voted to end the government shutdown last fall, this time say they're willing to risk it because this is so important to try and curb the actions of the administration here.
Yeah, we've seen this as a real turning point for a lot of people who might have leaned toward this kind of funding, but also now want closer investigations or to not provide this kind of funding until something tangible changes. And if that means going into a shutdown, Democrats feel like they have the wind at their backs.
Of course, there's always going to be dangers in that kind of thing politically.
All right. Well, we are going to take a quick break and we will have much more on the politics of this in a moment. And we're back. And if you don't want to miss any of our political analysis, make sure you hit the follow button in your favorite podcast app. Sam, on this pod, we have discussed this many times that congressional Republicans are not doing much to put checks on the administration.
Why is it that funding seems to be a place where we're seeing the most resistance?
Yeah, well, it is really one of the only places that the minority has any real leverage at all. You know, this funding cannot pass the Senate if nearly every Democrat is against it like they are now. And appropriations bills have to get passed or the government shuts down.
Also, something I think about going back to when I covered a state legislature, there's this maxim that budgets are essentially a statement of priorities. And so to me, it makes sense that this is a place where we see these really supercharged fights playing out right now.
Domenico, I do want to talk about the political calculation here because it isn't just ICE. It's FEMA. It's the TSA. Homeland Security includes a lot of things. Is there a political risk here for Democrats?
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Chapter 5: What are the political risks of a government shutdown for Democrats?
And so I think we're going to have to see who backs down first or else, you know, it is very possible we'll have at least a short-term lapse in funding.
Which sounds like that's the direction we're heading because certainly Democrats don't feel like they can vote for funding for an agency that's going about business the way they are. And Republicans have not shown much willingness to back down. And when you have that, it's a pretty bad mix.
All right. Well, let's leave it there for today. We will definitely be following this closely. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.
I'm Sam Greenglass. I cover Congress. And I'm Domenico Montanaro, senior political editor and correspondent.
And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.
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