Immigration Reform Remains the Senate’s White Whale

The Senate has — for now, at least — failed to secure a deal on immigration policy reform after two fatal shootings of protesters by immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota.

That’s a familiar struggle.

“I think they’re a long ways toward a solution,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday. “There are a couple of issues, obviously, they’re going to have to work through and work out. And there’s some lines neither side is probably going to be able to cross.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday said “what we’re waiting for is, again, the White House to get serious and the Republicans to get serious.”

“For whatever reason, they are stuck in a position that is not serious, will not end the violence and will not rein in ICE,” Schumer said.

Bipartisan dealmaking in Congress is hard, and it’s only getting harder. Increased polarization in both parties is driving members into corners. A number of members from the dealmaking middle have opted for retirement in recent years, especially in the Senate. But with immigration and border reform, the history of finding any compromise is even worse.

That difficulty proved true in 2023, the last time the Senate tried to negotiate major bipartisan immigration reform. Senate Republicans said they would only release further aid for war-torn Ukraine in exchange for meaningful border policy reform. A bipartisan group of senators, including Chris Murphy, Kyrsten Sinema, and James Lankford, spent months tensely discussing policy changes, with the blessing of their leaders to try to help get a package through the chamber. The effort came a decade after the last serious immigration reform effort in the Senate, led by the so-called “Gang of 8” that passed a bipartisan bill, but their plan never got a vote in the House.

The Murphy-Lankford-Sinema talks did yield an agreement. But President Donald Trump, then out of office but gunning for the 2024 nomination, ultimately came out against the deal, swaying support. The package failed to advance, wasting months of the chamber’s time and souring trust between lawmakers on good-faith negotiations.

That bargain, however, isn’t entirely different from the one Senate Democrats are backing now, which is to withhold support for Department of Homeland Security funding until there is meaningful reform to the agency, particularly regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Without a deal with the White House, Senate Democrats voted down a continuing resolution for that section of government funding on Thursday. That means a partial government shutdown started over the weekend, and lawmakers are not expected to return to town until Feb. 23.

Republicans contend there have been some notable changes that should serve as evidence of progress. Border czar Tom Homan has been deployed by Trump to defuse tensions in Minnesota. He announced Thursday that Trump agreed to wind down the sweeping deportation efforts in the state.

“We’ve got to be able to protect and to defend our law enforcement officers,” Sen. Mike Rounds said. “But clearly, I think Tom being there, will have the right movement at the right time, and he is defusing what is an extremely emotional situation where you’ve had loss of life, and people’s feelings and emotions are running very high.”

The White House and the Senate Democratic caucus have been swapping proposals back and forth, though they are yet to come to terms on any substantive set of line items. Democrats are asking for new accountability measures for immigration enforcement agents, including body cameras, not being allowed to wear masks, needing to carry identification, and greater cooperation with local law enforcement.

When asked on Thursday whether there was any portion of the White House’s proposal that seemed workable, Schumer told reporters “I’m not going to negotiate in public and get into the details” but “the proposal is not serious, plain and simple.”

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a moderate, on Tuesday said “we all understand that we don’t want violent criminals in our community, but they’re doing more than that. They’re going after U.S. citizens. They’re going after nonviolent immigrants, families and children.”

“That’s what we’re seeing, brutalizing our communities and the American people, they’re saying ‘enough,’” Cortez Masto told reporters. “So what we are asking our colleagues in the White House to work with us. … Unfortunately, we’re not seeing that.”

To be sure, there have been some immigration policy changes of substance during Trump’s first year in office, notably ones touted by Republicans stressing tighter restrictions. The Laken Riley Act passed last January, requiring federal authorities to detain undocumented immigrants if they are charged with crimes such as theft, shoplifting and larceny, even if that individual is not yet not convicted.

But the sort of broad, bipartisan immigration policy reforms Senate Democrats have been looking for – like some sort of path to legal status for undocumented workers – have been a white whale in the chamber.

Lawmakers insist there isn’t reason to totally give up yet on something more narrow to address immigration enforcement operations. Senators will still need to come to some sort of deal to eventually reopen that branch of government. Of course, the White House and the House would need to be on board, too.

But time is again a factor. Getting the White House, Democrats and Republicans on the same page on a perennially challenging issue like immigration in a midterm election year is something the Senate has demonstrated it has trouble doing.

“I think the White House is pretty close with this offer to get into kind of the agreement zone,” Thune told reporters. “I mean, I think the deal space is there, so I think it’s going to be up to the Dems to react to this and say, ‘OK, we can’t do this or that, and maybe there’s some more ground the White House can give on on a couple of fronts.’ I don’t know.”