March 17, 2026Updated March 18, 2026, 10:36 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON ‒ Seeking to end the rapidly worsening shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, the White House has supplied to broaden the usage of body-worn cameras for federal immigration enforcement brokers and restrict their actions at church buildings, colleges, and hospitals.
But a month into the disaster, the Trump administration remains to be holding agency on one of many extra contentious elements of the controversy to reform the 9/11-era Cabinet company, opposing any form of ban on masks for legislation enforcement officers.
The concessions had been detailed in a March 17 letter to Senate Republican leaders from high Trump administration officers in regards to the status of negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats.
As terrorism threats rise and airport safety traces develop longer throughout the nation, the letter underscores the intensifying pressure on the Trump administration and lawmakers to end the shutdown of the company that has been broadly scrutinized because the killings of two Minnesotans by Homeland Security officers earlier this 12 months.
It additionally emphasised simply how entrenched Republicans and Democrats stay in their respective political positions, even because the shutdown’s impacts multiply by the day. The letter made no point out of banning face coverings, one thing Democrats have insisted is a precedence. And even its most vital concessions included caveats (or have already been agreed to in different methods or laid out in federal legislation).
Still, the letter’s authors ‒ border czar Tom Homan and James Braid, the White House director of legislative affairs ‒ argued the administration has tried to negotiate in good religion to end the funding deadlock.
“Democrats really should be ashamed of putting our country and so many federal employees in this position,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, informed reporters on March 17.
Democrats lay the blame again on Republicans. While they’re supportive of President Donald Trump‘s determination to fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, they’ve indicated they need heavier coverage adjustments.
“A change in personnel is not sufficient,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, stated on March 16. “We need a change in policy. We need dramatic, bold, meaningful and transformational changes, so that ICE conducts itself like every other law enforcement agency in the country.”
What else did the White House supply?
In their letter to Congress, White House officers pledged to restrict immigration enforcement actions at so-called “sensitive locations” akin to church buildings and colleges. Included in the promise, nonetheless, was a “narrow carve-out for immediate needs like national security, flight risks, and public safety.”
Though there was no assertion of assist for a mask-wearing ban, the administration stated it might require federal brokers to say who they’re upon request (“undercover officers would not be subject to these requirements,” in accordance to the letter).
Officials additionally promised not to deport or knowingly detain any U.S. residents “except when the person violates a state or federal law that makes the citizen subject to arrest.”
Democrats strive to pressure piecemeal payments for TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard
In current weeks, Democrats have repeatedly tried to cross payments that will assist different vital elements of the DHS, such because the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency. More than 300 TSA brokers have resigned because the shutdown started, and call-out charges are rising quickly, creating airport safety hurdles and dangers of probably shutting down smaller airports in the long run.
But Democrats have purposely overlooked funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection from these proposals whereas negotiations with the White House proceed.
“Fund FEMA, not ICE,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the highest Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, wrote on social media final week. “Pretty clear cut.”
Any funding payments that ignore ICE and CBP are nonstarters for Republicans, in accordance to House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“As one of the primary agencies responsible for protecting the homeland, Customs and Border Protection plays an irreplaceable role in our national security framework,” he informed reporters on March 17. “This is not a game.”
On March 18, House Democrats plan to move forward with one other vote to fund solely the much less controversial elements of DHS. With a razor-thin GOP majority, they’re hoping to decide off at the least some Republicans whose constituents could also be pissed off by TSA woes or in any other case feeling the results of the shutdown.
Any House-passed invoice nonetheless would want Senate approval, which is not seemingly till Democrats attain a cope with the White House.
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can attain him by e-mail at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
