With a Friday funding deadline looming for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the White House made a last-minute bid to avert a government shutdown — but its effort was largely dismissed on Capitol Hill.
According to a White House official, the administration sent legislative text of a funding offer to Democratic negotiators Wednesday evening, an eleventh-hour attempt to keep DHS fully operational. But the move did little to break the deadlock.
Senate Democrats on Thursday rejected the counterproposal.
Senate Democrats said negotiations have made insufficient progress, and that they will hold firm unless Republicans agree to a 10-point plan to overhaul Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
That demand — tied directly to reforming federal immigration enforcement — sets up a stark choice for Republicans: either fund the government as written, or accept drastic changes to core border and interior enforcement agencies.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) expressed frustration with the White House response, noting that Democratic negotiators had provided detailed legislative language for reform last week — only to receive back what she called a “one-pager” that lacked details.
“That shows me that they’re not really serious about this,” Rosen said.
She went on to predict that Republicans will continue offering short-term funding extensions, rather than agree to sweeping immigration reforms Democrats are demanding.
“It’s like a kid who says, ‘Mom, just one more story, just one more story,’ and pretty soon they’re up all night,” Rosen said.
For Republican voters watching this unfold, the standoff highlights persistent tensions between two priorities: keeping the federal government open and fully funding national security functions, and resisting Democratic demands that could weaken border enforcement agencies that many GOP voters view as essential to public safety and immigration control.
