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The White House is digging in against congressional Democrats, revealing several compromises the administration has been willing to make on immigration enforcement to end the government shutdown.
In a letter from a White House official obtained by Fox News Digital, the administration laid out five key concessions to congressional Democrats who have continued to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a bid to get stringent reforms to immigration operations.
It’s the first peek behind the closely guarded veil of the funding stalemate and comes after congressional Democrats broke the ice with yet another counteroffer to the White House late Monday night, which the administration balked at as the shutdown entered its 32nd day.
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The White House unveiled a list of compromises made to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats as the DHS shutdown drags on into its 32nd day. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images; Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
“The Democrats have once again responded with a counteroffer that does not indicate the seriousness that this moment needs,” a senior White House official said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., countered that the White House wasn’t negotiating seriously, either.
“The issue is, they’re not getting serious,” Schumer said. “The key issues of warrants when you bust into someone’s house, the key issue of identity of police and no masks, they haven’t budged on those.”
The letter, sent to Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Katie Britt, R-Ala., included compromises on several demands that have been a top priority for Schumer and Democrats but notably lacked requirements for agents to obtain judicial warrants and demands that agents go maskless.
“The use of administrative warrants is a long-standing practice for administrations, and ultimately that will be a subject of future conversations, but the administration is unwilling to return to the Biden status quo of open borders,” the official said.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., warned that Senate Democrats’ refusal to fund DHS would have consequences. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Still, the letter did check off several asks for Democrats, including expanding the use of body-worn cameras for DHS agents, save for agents in undercover operations, coupled with plans to hold onto the footage to allow for more congressional oversight.
The Trump administration also offered to limit immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, including hospitals and schools, with exceptions to national security, flight risks and public safety. The administration also plans to adhere to congressional oversight of DHS detention facilities and vowed to enforce the use of visible identification for DHS agents.
Another compromise was to ensure that any U.S. citizens are not deported and plans to codify not “knowingly detaining a U.S. citizen, except when the person violates a state or federal law that makes the citizen subject to arrest.”
Democrats’ counter did little to move the needle for Republicans.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., characterized the White House’s compromises as going “above and beyond” and noted the administration had made offers to raise spending on body-worn cameras to $100 million and “include audits by the Inspector General, you know, and reviews for non-compliance.”
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“I mean, there’s a whole bunch of stuff in there that they’re just things that, in my view, have been significant gives on the part of the White House, but the Democrats seem intent on dragging out this political issue,” Thune said.
And Britt, who Thune tapped to lead negotiations on behalf of the GOP, said she was still trying to get Democrats in a room to negotiate.
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Britt told Fox News Digital she believed “there are many of my Democratic colleagues” that wanted to find a way out of the shutdown, too, and noted that during the 43-day shutdown there had been talks happening the whole time.
“I mean, it’s past time for us to do that, and so I’m going to keep pushing it,” she said. “But do you realize that, how many days into this — and we have yet to sit down and talk about it — I mean it’s actual insanity.”
