While millions of working people and immigrant communities demand real accountability and even abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer appears poised to deliver another win for Republicans and the Trump White House as he surrenders what little leverage Democrats have to actually rein in ICE brutality.
Schumer has cut a deal with the president and the GOP leadership to strip out and pass five of the six appropriations bills that fund 96% of government operations and thereby avoid a potential shutdown. That would leave the bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security—which includes ICE—to be debated another day. ICE is to be given a two-week extension of its current funding level (which is already triple what it was before 2025).
Democratic strategists are painting the move as a tactical win. It prevents a shutdown for most of the government, ensuring federal workers remain on the job and guaranteeing that public benefit payments like Social Security and SNAP are not endangered. Meanwhile, it buys more time to negotiate with Republicans on reforming ICE.
But critics inside and outside the party have pointed out that giving in on all the other funding bills in advance—bills which, by the way, lock in Trump cuts to other domestic programs like the National Labor Relations Board and OSHA—leaves the Democrats nothing to bargain with. Especially, as has been pointed out, when Republicans have been loudly trumpeting their intention to do away with the filibuster and pass bills on a majority-only basis.
We’ve seen this same game play out before, twice. In the spring of 2025, Schumer refused to block a GOP bill averting a shutdown, arguing that Elon Musk’s DOGE and Trump would be empowered to fire more federal workers. He and nine other Democrats joined the Republicans in advancing their funding bill…and the firings proceeded anyway.
Progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y, condemned the move at the time. She said it was “unthinkable” that Schumer would surrender leverage in such a fashion. Rep. Norma Torres, D-Calif., said Schumer “betrayed” Americans.
Then, last fall, when Republicans forced a government shutdown by refusing to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that millions of families rely on to be able to afford their health insurance, Schumer allowed eight of his caucus members to join Republicans in supporting a funding bill that reopened the government and left the health care money fight to be settled later.
The promised vote on the ACA subsidies was eventually held, and Democrats, predictably, lost. On Jan. 1, 2026, the subsidies expired, just as the GOP wanted all along.
MS-Now writer Kevin Frey, reflecting the thinking of the liberal punditry, wrote on the morning of Friday, Jan. 30, that the tactics pursued by Schumer and the Democratic leadership in those earlier fights “didn’t provide a policy win but served as a political winner” because now health care will be a central topic of public conversation during the midterms.
People’s health insurance premiums soared and millions still face the prospect of losing their health care altogether, but this all counts as a “win” because Schumer got credit for ending the shutdown and the Dems have an issue to run on in November.
That same logic is playing out again right now in Washington, and commentators like Frey are salivating over “another political win” for Schumer. Simply because Trump and the GOP didn’t get DHS and ICE funding passed simultaneously with the other spending bills and instead have to wait a couple of weeks, we’re supposed to have a victory celebration?
Even if the Democratic leadership is given the benefit of the doubt, and we assume they know the odds of success better than those of us outside the beltway, what concessions are they asking for in exchange for their eventual votes to fund DHS and ICE?
Their asks are moving targets, with that movement generally trending toward the weaker and less meaningful. According to points released by Schumer a few days ago, Democrats will ask for an end to roving ICE patrols, the requirement of warrants, tighter coordination between ICE and local law enforcement, use of force standards that match those of regular police, and a “masks off, body cameras on” policy.
Sounds good, but as David Dayen of The American Prospect has pointed out, “many of these conditions are already part of ICE and CBP standards; the problem is a lack of enforcement.” So, essentially, Schumer is just requesting that DHS agencies follow their own existing (but ignored) rules of conduct. Does that count as a substantive demand?
Missing from the Democratic list are things like ending mass arrest quotas, sending the Border Patrol back to the border, requiring independent investigations into ICE crimes and cooperation with state and local officials, and stopping operations at schools and churches. Also, there is no effort to claw back the massive surge of funding that ICE already received and which is paying for the brutal operations playing out in Minnesota.
Absent, too, are demands and insights that have been put forward by organized labor and community groups. The Minnesota AFL-CIO has called for the resignation or impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the real brain behind the anti-immigrant blitzkrieg. Schumer has criticized both but would leave them in place.
Polls suggest that the Dems would have public support if they chose to take a firmer line. YouGov data released last week shows that nearly 60% of people say ICE’s violent tactics are too forceful, and those who support abolishing the agency completely outnumber those who want to keep it as is. That’s the demand that both the National Nurses Union and the United Electrical workers have put forward.
Abolition of ICE as it currently exists was never going to be on the Democratic leadership’s agenda, perhaps, but even Schumer’s pared-down bargaining bullet points are already non-starters for Republicans. Quoting Frey again: “In the end, it’s hard to see a path where Republicans agree to negotiate on DHS conditions, the White House agrees, everything passes into law smoothly, and these conditions make a tangible difference in anyone’s lives.”
Rather than threaten a genuine showdown over the unfolding fascist terror, Schumer offers a two-week extension of DHS funding, allowing its attacks and raids to continue largely uninterrupted. As for the leverage Democrats have right now—public outrage over the Minneapolis murders, bipartisan discomfort with ICE violence, and the looming threat of a government shutdown—it could all dissipate by the time of any vote, making it even harder politically to take a meaningful stand.
It’s a retreat into a familiar pattern: Seek incremental changes around the edges and rely on “good faith” negotiations with Republicans and the Trump White House. It’s a strategy that has delivered few real results and only left the far right even more emboldened. It’s little wonder then that progressives and immigrant communities fear the same outcome this time.
Britt Jacovich, spokesperson for MoveOn Civic Action, a group which has participated in anti-ICE mobilizations, put the issue squarely to Senate Democrats on Thursday night: “Leader Schumer should ask the Minnesotans who are watching their neighbors get killed in cold blood if a deal with no plan to stop ICE is enough right now.”
Democratic strategists and political spin consultants in D.C. may be patting each other on the back for scoring a win in the game of politics, but out in the real world, the people of Minneapolis and the entire country are still waiting for real change.
As with all op-eds published by People’s World, the opinions expressed here are those of the author.
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