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Senate Democrats say they want to end the federal government shutdown however have repeatedly blocked GOP makes an attempt to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they push for immigration enforcement reforms.
On Friday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., mentioned at a information convention following an antisemitic assault on the Temple Israel synagogue in her state that “certainly” Congress should fund DHS.
However, Slotkin and most Senate Democrats have voted 4 occasions to block DHS funding, together with a number of makes an attempt to quickly reopen the company while negotiations proceed.
Slotkin is only one of a number of Senate Democrats calling for an end to the shutdown. Republicans argue the votes are a part of a broader Democratic technique to blame them for blocking efforts to reopen DHS.
DEMS VOTE TO KEEP DHS CLOSED DESPITE AIRPORT CHAOS, IRANIAN SLEEPER CELL THREAT
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats are shifting their shutdown technique to reopen most of DHS, and blaming Republicans for blocking their efforts. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., accused Democrats of making an attempt to shift blame for the shutdown.
“Well, that’s what they do, right? And they’re good at it. They’re really good at it,” he informed Fox News Digital. “And the big difference is they have 90% of the legacy media backing them up.”
“So it’s hard, but again, four times this afternoon, the Democrats voted against funding DHS,” he continued.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of utilizing the federal staff of quite a lot of businesses beneath DHS, just like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as “hostages.”
“I remind my Republican colleagues, we’re going to be back here again and again, winning this debate and eventually winning the American people,” Schumer mentioned.
But Slotkin and others at the moment are signaling an openness to funding Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which many Democrats have sought to deny federal funding to, as well as to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We need, in my view, to cut away all the conversation on ICE, which is its own conversation,” Slotkin mentioned on the information convention.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., is seen throughout votes within the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc through Getty Images)
Republicans have sharply criticized Democrats for denying funding to DHS regardless of a sequence of terror-related assaults throughout the nation and a heightened risk surroundings amid the U.S.-Israeli battle involving Iran.
An alleged ISIS-inspired bomb plot in New York City and a lethal capturing involving a convicted Islamic State supporter at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, rocked the nation final week.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., mentioned he helps funding DHS after voting in opposition to full-year appropriations for the division Thursday.
“I think we should,” Warner replied when requested if Democrats ought to break the impasse by CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday.
“What we have now supplied is let’s pay TSA, let’s pay FEMA, let’s pay … the Coast Guard, let’s pay CISA. I’d even say let’s pay Customs and Border Patrol,” Warner mentioned. “If we can’t agree on ICE reforms, let’s pay everybody else.”
KATIE BRITT BLASTS DEMOCRAT FOR PLAYING ‘POLITICAL GAMES’ WITH SHUTDOWN AMID AIRPORT CHAOS
Sen. Katie Britt, a Republican from Alabama, attends a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration listening to on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Images)
However, it’s not clear that sufficient Democrats can be prepared to fund CBP while nonetheless negotiating reforms to ICE to end the shutdown. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has been the lone Democrat to date to cross-party strains and help a full-year DHS appropriations invoice.
“Democrats’ position is simple: we want reforms to rein in ICE and Border Patrol,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., mentioned on the Senate ground Thursday. “We also want TSA and FEMA funded — but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ICE to get it done.”
Senate Republicans have rejected Democrats’ makes an attempt to fund each company beneath DHS aside from these dealing with immigration enforcement.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., final week blocked an effort by Murray to fund the non-immigration parts of DHS.
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Republicans’ resistance to efforts to partially reopen the company comes as negotiations between the White House and Democrats have stalled.
“Members need to get in a room, have tough conversations, and figure out a pathway for the American people,” Britt informed Fox News Digital. “Their safety and security should matter more than politics in November, and unfortunately, Democrats continue to try to take hostages.”
