If they are not careful, Democrats could get outmaneuvered on the details of trading funding for reform.Click to view this email in your browser. [link removed]

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JANUARY 30, 2026

On the

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Responses to ICE Violence Reveal a Racial Double Standard [link removed]

The deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good are getting national attention. The brutality against primarily Black, Latino, and Asian immigrants has not triggered the same outrage. [link removed]

BY NAOMI BETHUNE [link removed]

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Tesla’s Wile E. Coyote Moment Is Here [link removed]

But how long can Elon Musk keep running on air? Potentially quite a long time. [link removed]

BY RYAN COOPER [link removed]

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‘No Sleep for ICE’ Campaigns Expand [link removed]

Community-driven organizing is cementing the national movement to stop hotels from accommodating federal immigration agents. [link removed]

BY JAMES BARATTA [link removed]

****KUTTNER ON TAP****

**No time to compromise on ICE**

**If they are not careful, Democrats could get outmaneuvered on the details of trading funding for reform.**

To hear Donald Trump tell it, his administration and the Democrats have a deal to keep the government open and reform the excesses of ICE. “Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES,’” Trump posted on Truth Social, explicitly endorsing the deal.

What’s the deal? Supposedly there is bipartisan agreement on core reform principles that include mandating the use of body cameras and ID for all ICE agents, tightening rules on warrants for searches of homes and vehicles, and ending roving patrols. In return, the Democrats will vote to approve five of the six remaining appropriations bills, plus a two-week continuing resolution that allows the Department of Homeland Security (which includes ICE) to keep operating, while final details on the reforms are negotiated.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s two-week window for finalizing DHS reform, in exchange for averting a government shutdown, is being portrayed as a tactical victory over Republican Senate Leader John Thune. On Thursday, the Republican motion to advance all six appropriations bills failed, with every Senate Democrat voting no. That opened the door to Schumer’s deal.

But the devil is in the details, and here’s where the Democrats risk getting screwed. Having given up their leverage of demanding a final deal by the shutdown deadline of Saturday night, they will now be subject to all manner of Republican backpedaling over the next two weeks.

Right now, it is the Republicans who are on the defensive because of the mass revulsion against ICE’s Gestapo operations. But two weeks from now, if no deal is made and DHS partly shuts down, the Republicans could blur responsibility, claiming that Democrats demanded too much and Republicans could not play games with public safety.

There is also a risk that they could peel off a few Democrats to vote for funding ICE with inadequate safeguards, and destroy the party’s short-lived unity. The idea that Trump would actually bargain in good faith is a contradiction in terms. Mainly, he just wanted to get ICE off the front pages.

One complication is how the terms to be set by Congress will dovetail with the deal that the new top ICE-man Tom Homan is making with Minnesota officials for an ICE pullback in exchange for greater “cooperation” by local law enforcement. What exactly does that mean?

Does it mean that state officials turn over anyone wanted by ICE, or just convicted felons? What restraints on ICE will Homan provide in return? In the two weeks while Congress argues the details of statutory constraints, Trump could contend that Homan has already solved the problem.

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House and Senate Democratic leaders are united on most core principles. And in a role reversal, House Leader Hakeem Jeffries is taking a harder line than Schumer. At a press conference this morning, Jeffries called for explicit requirements for independent investigations of ICE excesses that go beyond Schumer’s version. Jeffries also refused to commit that House Democrats would deliver DHS funding in two weeks, saying that the details remained to be evaluated.

And in a remarkable alliance of the left and the center, the leaders of House Congressional Progressive Caucus and the House New Democrat Coalition, Reps. Greg Casar of Texas and Brad Schneider of Illinois, jointly released a list of demands as their conditions for supporting DHS funding. The demands went well beyond both Schumer and Jeffries, and evidently contributed to the stiffening of Jeffries’s spine.

The list included:

1. Ensure ICE and CBP immediately leave Minneapolis and stop terrorizing American cities and communities;

2. End arrests without judicial warrants and, outside of exigent circumstances, arrests at sensitive locations such as churches, shelters, schools, and courthouses;

3. Ensure full, independent, and transparent investigations into all DHS-related shootings, including federal cooperation with state and local investigations, and ensure that federal agents are properly trained, appropriately supervised, and held fully accountable for their actions;

4. End the detention and deportation of U.S. citizens;

5. End the anonymity of federal agents by requiring them to remove their masks and provide identification;

6. Ensure robust minimum standards of care at detention facilities—including access to medical care, clean water, and edible food, and protections against abuse—and ensure independent investigations of deaths.

In addition, the two explicitly called for the removal of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. Jeffries and Schumer have as well, but the list of demands should help keep the pressure on the leaders to hold out for the strongest possible restraints.

With the House currently out of session, the soonest that the package can pass is Monday. That means there will be a brief weekend shutdown, even if the Senate completes its work as expected. That’s enough time to demand and get Republican commitments in writing on basic principles, rather than just punting for two weeks.

Republicans are finally on the defensive over the gross excesses of ICE, and deservedly so. This is a time for Democrats to press their advantage, not to seek polite compromises.

Robert Kuttner
Co-Editor, Co-Founder

Robert Kuttner
Co-Editor, Co-Founder

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