Republicans warn Democrats' ICE reform push is cover to defund border enforcement

Senate Democrats are standing firm by their demands to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but Senate Republicans believe they have an ulterior motive: completely defund immigration operations across the country.

"I'm really concerned that all the Democrats want to do is defund ICE," Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital, "They want open borders. They don't want to get rid of criminals."

Republicans argue the canary in the coal mine came last week when the Senate was advancing a Trump-backed funding deal.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., attempted to pass an amendment that would have stripped the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE of $75 billion, which was summarily defeated on the floor.

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"Every single Senate Democrat voted yes," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said. "That’s how radical Democrats have become. The Senate rightly rejected this amendment. The Sanders Amendment exposes Democrats’ open borders goals."

That money came from President Donald Trump's marquee "big, beautiful bill," which shoveled billions to DHS for immigration operations, ensuring the agency is flush with cash for the next three to four fiscal years, regardless of congressional Democrats’ desires to defund it.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital that the money from the "big, beautiful bill," wasn’t going anywhere. Britt is leading talks for Senate Republicans over the issue.

"That’s not up for negotiation," Britt said.

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"Once again, just like they did in the last shutdown, they would be putting the American people in jeopardy and at a worse place as a result of trying to win on a political posturing or political issue," she continued. "So look, I plan on going into this with good-faith intentions, and I certainly hope that they will as well."

As the week has gone on, some Senate Republicans believed that all their counterparts wanted to do was gut ICE. 

When asked if he believed that Democrats' end goal was to completely defund immigration enforcement operations, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., told Fox News Digital, "100%."

"There's no way we're going to put handcuffs on ICE to limit what they can do," Tuberville said.

Senate Democrats pushed back against the assertion that they wanted to gut the agency, arguing that because of the funding already established by the "big, beautiful bill," there was little they could actually do to defund immigration operations.

"I want accountability," Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., told Fox News Digital. "I want to make sure that there's oversight. But right now, what I'm seeing is lawlessness and some of the actions and behaviors that should be alarming to all of us, and you know, that's the underlying factor that we want to address."

"It's not about some game," he continued.

Congressional Democrats coalesced around a list of 10 demands, finally unveiling their proposal late Wednesday night. It included several policies Republicans have already spurned, like de-masking ICE agents and requiring judicial warrants.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., balked at the new proposal, and said that "there’s just a bunch of stuff in there that’s a nonstarter."

"They know that. Now maybe they had to put it in there to satisfy MoveOn.org, or some other special left-wing special interest groups," Thune said. "But there are a few things that actually there's probably some room to move on there to negotiate on, but a lot of that stuff, obviously just wasn't serious."

Republicans are also mulling turning to another short-term funding patch, given that as of Thursday, their last day in session, they had just eight days left on the clock before the current continuing resolution (CR) for DHS ran out.

But Democrats aren’t keen on supporting another extension — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that Thune and Republicans "shouldn’t count on our votes."

He also pushed back against grumbling Republicans, arguing that negotiations wouldn’t move along unless Republicans revealed what they wanted in return.

"They have to get their act together," he said. "We spent three days diligently, seriously coming up with a comprehensive, commonsense plan that police departments throughout the country use. Where are they?"