When Donald Trump came before lawmakers Tuesday night during the first State of the Union to ever occur during a partial government shutdown, the president used the occasion to issue Democrats a schoolyard dare.
“If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support,” Trump said. “The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”
When few Democrats stood, Trump made it clear he’s digging in for a fight over immigration.
“You should be ashamed of yourself for not standing up,” Trump told Democrats, who made a point most of the night not to engage with the president’s speech.
That exchange encapsulated the state of negotiations on reining in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and funding the Department of Homeland Security, Democrats said — a negotiation in which there’s been very little actual negotiating.
DHS has been shut down since Feb. 14, and it’s been more than a week since there were tangible developments in talks.
At no point in Trump’s speech Tuesday night did he mention the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, nor did he mention Democratic proposals to require federal agents to wear body cameras, to receive judicial warrants to enter people’s homes, and to stop wearing masks — among other things. Instead, Trump shifted to a Republican proposal to require proof of citizenship to register to vote.
“What I took away from his comments was a total misunderstanding and resistance to any reform of an agency that’s lawless and totally out of control,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told MS NOW on Wednesday. “He has no concept of how brutal and violent DHS is in violating constitutional rights.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Trump wanted to shift focus away from the public outcry over ICE’s actions.
“Donald Trump didn’t want to talk about what happened with ICE in Minneapolis,” Van Hollen told reporters Wednesday.
Since last Monday, when Democrats sent a DHS funding counteroffer to the White House, there haven’t been many real developments. The White House quickly rejected the Democratic proposal, and never sent back a counteroffer.
“We sent them a proposal a week ago Monday. We still haven’t heard back,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “Crickets.”
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told reporters that the ball is in the GOP’s court. And when asked if the White House was negotiating in good faith, she didn’t have a very encouraging answer.
“Not yet,” she said.
“We have sent them what our priorities are,” Murray said Wednesday. “They responded with a very weak response. We sent back the other response and have heard nothing.”
But congressional Republicans say, despite the lack of progress, they’re negotiating in good faith. They expect Democrats to warm up to their positions as the effects of the shutdown intensify. And Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday there are still “overtures and outreach being done by the White House.”
The question is, Thune suggested, how motivated are Democrats to compromise.
“These agencies that are not currently being funded, and these people who are not going to start not getting paid — in a couple of weeks, it’s going to become very real for them,” he said.
DHS employees are set to receive paychecks Thursday for half of their pay. Their first fully missed paycheck is scheduled for March 12. The White House is able to pay some employees during the shutdown, especially those with border security responsibilities, thanks to billions of dollars provided in last year’s tax-and-spending bill, which isn’t affected by the funding lapse.
Republicans have made offers for changes at ICE, but not the measures Democrats have asked for.
The gap between what Democrats want and what Republicans are willing to agree to is clearly wide. And the bad blood over negotiations is only getting worse over a Democratic refusal to agree to a continuing resolution to keep the agency running a bit longer.
“We’ve offered more training, body cams, those kinds of things,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., told reporters Wednesday. “Or a CR, if the Dems want to keep negotiating. At what point does them turning that down just say they want to not pay [Transportation Security Administration] and the others?”
Those offers from Republicans, however, have not addressed the specific demands from Democrats. Schumer told reporters on Tuesday that Republicans “have not budged on the key issues, like masks, like warrants, like oversight from state authorities.”
The lack of movement has left rank-and-file lawmakers confused.
“It’s been very quiet, so unusually quiet,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told reporters Wednesday. “Last I knew that offers that went back and forth were dead on arrival in each other’s hands. So it didn’t sound very good.”
Republicans suspect Democrats will keep playing hardball, knowing it benefits them to fight Trump as the 2026 midterm elections draw near, Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., told MS NOW.
“I don’t think this has a thing in the world to do with DHS,” Justice said Wednesday. “I don’t think it’s anything to do with Homeland. I think this is all one thing, a midterm play, 100%. And the Democrats, really and truly, are really good at playing that hand, and the Republicans are probably not so good at playing that hand.”
So far, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is the lone Democrat to agree with that analysis.
He told MS NOW he agrees with his party’s push for policy changes to rein in ICE, but that he doesn’t think the shutdown will yield results.
“Yeah, you can want reforms, but if you want those changes, then do something that could produce those things,” Fetterman said. “Shutting down the entire part of DHS won’t do that. We all know that.”
Kevin Frey, Nora McKee and Peggy Helman contributed reporting.
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