Democrats Propose Minor Reforms for ICE — and Record Funding

Congressional Democratic leaders are asking ICE to agree to reforms, promising to vote for $11 billion in funding for the agency if it does so. ICE has every reason to concede to the demands — then ignore them once the funding bill passes.

By Stephen Semler, Jacobin

The House ended the partial government shutdown last week by passing legislation containing five full-year spending bills for 2026 — Pentagon ($839 billion); Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education ($195 billion); Transportation and Housing and Urban Development ($103 billion); Financial Services and General Government ($26 billion); State Department ($50 billion) — and a temporary funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security (prorated based on its $89 billion 2025 budget).

The spending package originally contained a full-year Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, but the Senate replaced it with a two-week funding measure after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents summarily executed legal observer Alex Pretti, RN. The Senate approved the amended legislation on January 30, sending it back to the House. Democratic leaders said they would use those two weeks to negotiate Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reforms as a condition for approving the full-year DHS funding bill.

Assessing Democratic Leadership’s Proposed ICE Reforms

On Wednesday, House and Senate minority leaders Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) proposed ten reforms for ICE, which you can read here. None of them involve reducing ICE funding.

The question isn’t whether these proposed reforms are any good. The question is whether they’re worth $11 billion. Why? Because there’s $11 billion for ICE in the pending 2026 DHS bill, and agreeing to the reforms unlocks the Democratic votes needed to pass it.