President Trump's border czar dismissed Democratic lawmakers' demands for changes to ICE before they agree to fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, saying agents will not be removing their masks. At the same time, Democrats stuck to their list that also includes ending racial profiling in policing and officers entering private homes without a judicial warrant, Reuters reports. "I don't like the masks either," Tom Homan said on CBS News' Face the Nation. He said threats and attacks against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have skyrocketed. "These men and women have to protect themselves," he said.
On CNN's State of the Union, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats are only asking that federal agents abide by rules followed by law enforcement agencies around the country, per the AP. "And the question that Americans are asking is, 'Why aren't Republicans going along with these commonsense proposals?'" Schumer said, adding, "They're what every police department in America does." Homan said agents are operating within federal law. On Fox News Sunday, per Reuters, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said it was the "outcry from Americans" that got Republicans to negotiate about ICE now even though the agency has the money to keep operating.
"All this is a political theater because the State of the Union is coming up a week from Tuesday," GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin told CNN, per the Hill. The partial shutdown began Saturday. With the unyielding rhetoric and lack of suggested compromises on the Sunday talk shows, plus the fact that Congress' recess doesn't end until Feb. 23, no potential way out of the impasse surfaced.
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