A bipartisan group of House lawmakers is preparing to roll out legislation aimed at reopening the Department of Homeland Security while pairing new funding with tougher rules for federal immigration enforcement officers.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who head the Problem Solvers Caucus, are reportedly finalizing the measure after DHS has remained shuttered for weeks. Fitzpatrick said the lawmakers hope to introduce the bill on Friday.
The proposal is designed to attract support from both parties.
For Democrats, it goes further than an earlier offer from Senate Republicans and the Trump administration by adding a ban on face masks and new warrant requirements before arrests. For Republicans, it would also increase criminal penalties for doxxing federal officers, an issue that has drawn strong concern from GOP lawmakers.
The measure comes as Senate leaders have spent the week trading competing proposals to reopen DHS, only to see each one rejected by the other side.
In an effort to break the stalemate, members of the Problem Solvers Caucus met Thursday in the basement of the Capitol Visitors Center to review the emerging plan. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, also took part in the discussion.
After the meeting, Fitzpatrick argued that any reforms should be narrowly targeted at the section of ICE that handles enforcement and removal operations and not extend to other DHS agencies that traditionally do not play a direct role in interior enforcement, including Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
"Some of my Democrat colleagues are trying to loop in CBP, HSI, which has nothing to do with this," Fitzpatrick told The Hill after the meeting. "It's enforcement and removal operations within ICE — it's a very specific piece of ICE. That's the issue that we need to fix."
It remains unclear whether Democrats, especially those on the far left, will embrace the legislation. Some have raised concerns that under President Donald Trump's DHS, HSI agents have been helping ICE with removal operations.
They also point to the administration's deportation push, which included CBP deployments into Democrat-led cities such as Minneapolis, where two agents killed protester Alex Pretti.
On Wednesday, leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus said they would oppose any DHS funding package that includes money for ICE and CBP without all of Democrats' reform demands.
"The Congressional Progressive Caucus' position is that leadership in the House and the Senate — and rank-and-file Democrats in the House and the Senate — need to stick to our position, which is the American people's position, that we're not going to give ICE and CBP billions more dollars until there are dramatic reforms so we can prevent the killing of more citizens like Alex Pretti," CPC Chair Greg Casar, D-Texas, told the outlet.
Beyond the mask ban and warrant requirements, the Fitzpatrick-Suozzi proposal would expand the use of body cameras, prohibit warrantless raids in sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals, and permit independent investigations when federal officers are accused of using excessive force.
The measure is also drawing pushback from the right. Trump border czar Tom Homan said this week he would not comply with any ban on face masks, saying such a move would endanger ICE officers.
"You want us to give up masks, well, you know what? No, we're not," Homan said Wednesday in an interview with the "Cats & Cosby Show" on WABC 770 AM. "I'm not putting one ICE officer at risk."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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