DHS Funding Cliff Looms as ICE Reforms Drive New Fight (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Now that the second government shutdown is over, what's next? Well, it could be another government shutdown in two weeks' time. This over the Homeland Security Department. A huge fight is building on Capitol Hill over reining in Donald Trump's use of ICE agents across the country to enforce immigration laws. Democrats have successfully won a big concession in this latest government shutdown fight to extend federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security for just two weeks in order to give them time to negotiate changes to ICE agents and how they are being used by President Trump.

[00:00:37] Speaker 2: If Leader Thune negotiates in good faith, we can get it done. We expect to present to the Republicans a very serious, detailed proposal very shortly.

[00:00:48] Speaker 1: Among the Democratic demands are to end roving patrols, to require ICE agents to take their masks off, force them to wear body cameras, and also to change how warrants are being issued as they search for people who have allegedly broken immigration laws. But the problem is this. Republicans and Democrats are not on the same page on this issue.

[00:01:12] Speaker 3: We're giving them everything that they want and setting aside the thing that we want. So anytime you're going to do that, you're putting yourself in a bad negotiating position.

[00:01:22] Speaker 4: We feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, and they're moving it all the time. Meanwhile, Americans are abused, Americans are being murdered on the streets by this rogue agency, so I'm not going to play that game with them anymore.

[00:01:36] Speaker 1: The Speaker himself has rejected some key Democratic demands, and Democrats believe that the Speaker is not negotiating in good faith, and they have very little time to reach a deal, to draft the legislation, push it through both chambers of Congress, and avoid the third government shutdown of President Trump's second term.

[00:01:54] Speaker 5: It will be part of the discussion over the next couple of weeks, and we'll see how all that shakes out. But I suspect that some of the changes, the procedural modifications with ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, will be codified.

[00:02:08] Speaker 1: The big question is can they reach an agreement on such a politically fraught issue that is roiling the country at this key moment.