Shutdown looms as Dems reveal demands for sweeping ICE overhaul

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has planted his flag on a series of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement that Senate Democrats are demanding in order to approve the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security.

According to Igor Bobic of HuffPost, the core demands from the Democratic caucus articulated by Schumer are to cease roving patrols, tighten requirements for warrants, establish a unified code of conduct all federal agents involved with immigration must follow, require body cameras on agents, and ban agents from concealing their identity with masks.

Such changes would represent a huge rewrite of the bill passed by the House, and would require the House to take a highly contentious re-vote even if Senate Republicans capitulated to all these demands.

It would also almost certainly mean a partial federal government shutdown while all of these details are hammered out, as funding lapses on Friday.

President Donald Trump has tried instead to promise his administration will make internal reforms to ICE and Border Patrol policies. Schumer and the Democratic caucus have rejected this as insufficient and insist Congress must codify any reforms in law.