Democrats say immigration fight won't ease with Noem's departure

Jacob Fulton, CQ-Roll Call on Mar 6, 2026

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WASHINGTON — The ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared to have no immediate impact on her department’s partial shutdown, as the two parties sparred anew over a Democratic demand for an immigration enforcement overhaul.

Within minutes of President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was replacing Noem with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Democrats vowed to press on in their campaign for new curbs on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Public outrage over ICE tactics has held up passage of a long-delayed Homeland Security spending bill.

“A change in personnel is not sufficient,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said at his weekly news conference. “We need a change in policy.”

Connecticut Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, echoed that view. “Changing the name plate on the door doesn’t change the fact that they are committed to using DHS to terrorize communities and migrants in this country,” he said.

And Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters that any breakthrough in the funding standoff would have to come from Republicans.

“They’ve been stonewalling us on the most important issues, and those have to change, and they have to change them,” Schumer said of GOP negotiators. He also made clear that he would not settle for administrative changes within the Homeland Security Department.

“We have to change them by legislation because I don’t trust any one person being in charge of this agency as long as Trump is president, given the policies he’s espoused, given how ICE has been structured,” Schumer said. “The rot is deep.”

Since immigration agents fatally shot two Americans in Minneapolis in January, Democrats have been insisting on new restrictions on ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Those include no masks for agents and requiring judicial warrants to enter private property to uphold a 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The White House and Democrats have exchanged multiple offers on the matter, but progress has been scant. Republicans have said unmasking immigration agents would expose them to doxing and other harassment by protesters, while requiring judicial warrants would lead to court backlogs that would make an immigration crackdown nearly impossible to implement.

“Senate Democrats are not engaging,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “And furthermore, I would say, beyond not engaging, they are just flat rejecting any chance to sit down and actually talk about it. And that seems to be coming from the top.”

Another round of show votes

With both sides dug in, Thune tried for a second time in as many months to bring up a House-passed Homeland Security appropriations bill, knowing Democrats would block it again.

And the outcome largely mirrored the vote last month, with the Senate voting 51-45 along party lines Thursday to limit debate on a motion to proceed to the bill, falling nine votes short of the 60 required.

Republicans in recent days have sought to highlight the pain caused by the partial government shutdown that is now in its third week.

The immigration agencies Democrats take issue with are still receiving some funding thanks to the GOP’s sprawling budget reconciliation law from last summer. But agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency aren’t funded by that law and are now feeling the squeeze.

Washington Sen. Patty Murray, top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, sought unanimous consent to pass a bill that would fund the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE and CBP. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., blocked the effort. Britt, in turn, sought unanimous consent for a three-week stopgap measure for the entire department, which Murray blocked.

The House, meanwhile, voted 221-209 Thursday for another Homeland Security funding bill that is nearly identical to the one it passed in January, although the new version would provide retroactive pay to department employees who lost pay during the shutdown.

In the January vote, seven Democrats broke with their party to vote with nearly every Republican to advance the spending bill, 220-213. The new bill, which won support from only four Democrats, now faces the same Senate logjam as the old bill. Democratic Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina, Jared Golden of Maine, and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, joined all Republicans in support of the bill.

Dismissing the impact of Noem’s departure, Jeffries said, “It’s not like Kristi Noem was involved in negotiating anything. She was a corrupt lackey. So we’re dealing with the White House and we’re going to continue to deal with the White House at this point.”

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—Aris Folley and Savannah Behrmann contributed to this report.