What Democrats Would Gain From a Proposed Shutdown Deal—and What They Say Is Missing

“The time to end this is now,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday. The Republican plan, loosely backed by President Donald Trump, would fund roughly 94% of the department and restore pay to thousands of federal workers, including airport screeners who have been working without pay since mid-February. However, it pointedly omits new funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s core deportation operations, as Democrats continue to demand sweeping changes to how federal agents conduct immigration enforcement.

Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said the plan doesn’t properly address the party’s concerns with Trump’s immigration crackdown, particularly after two U.S. citizens were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year. “This does not have any reforms in ICE,” he said, adding that Democrats were preparing a counterproposal. “I can assure you it will contain significant reform in it.”

Yet the political terrain remains fluid, as Republicans need to peel off a few Democratic Senators. “I need to see the text in front of me, because I can't tell you what the points are,” Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada, who broke with her party to end the last lengthy government shutdown, tells TIME, declining to say how she would vote.

The shutdown, now in its fifth week, has exposed deep divisions over immigration policy and the limits of federal enforcement power. Below is a closer look at what Democrats would—and would not—get under the current proposal, based on conversations with lawmakers who reviewed the text.

Included: Body cameras and identification

The Republican plan does include funding for body cameras and requirements that federal immigration officers wear identification—provisions that were previously negotiated and are already broadly agreed upon.

Democrats have pushed for these measures as a baseline accountability standard, arguing that agents operating in communities should be clearly identifiable and subject to documentation of their interactions. The killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis intensified those calls, with lawmakers insisting that transparency is essential to rebuilding public trust.

But many Democrats say the provisions, as currently structured, fall short. They want stronger mandates to ensure consistent use of body cameras and stricter enforcement mechanisms if officers fail to comply. Without those guarantees written into law, they argue, the measures risk becoming symbolic rather than transformative.

“As I understand it at this moment, they are not including all the reforms we’re asking,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts tells TIME. “ICE should have to follow the same basic rules that pretty much every law enforcement out there in America follows.”

Not included: Judicial warrants for searches and arrests

One of the central Democratic demands—requiring judicial warrants for immigration enforcement actions in private homes—is not explicitly included in the Republican proposal, Democrats say. 

Currently, immigration agents can rely on administrative warrants issued by their own agency. Democrats argue that this creates a dangerous loophole, allowing federal officers to bypass the traditional judicial oversight required of most law enforcement agencies. Some Republicans have shown openness to discussing the issue, but party leaders have resisted codifying the requirement in the funding bill without corresponding ICE funding.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland suggested to TIME that the language from Republicans on warrants lacks any teeth. “My understanding is that what Republicans have conceded to is what the Constitution already requires,” he says. 

Not included: Prohibition on agents masking 

Democrats have also demanded that federal agents be barred from wearing masks during most immigration enforcement operations, arguing that masked agents undermine public accountability and can escalate tensions during encounters with civilians.

That demand does not appear in the current deal, Democrats said, as Republicans insist that federal agents must be allowed to continue to wear masks to avoid exposing themselves and their families to threats.

Trump yesterday asked ICE agents who are being dispatched to U.S. airports amid the partial government shutdown not to wear masks as they aid in airport security operations, but has not backed down from his support of immigration agents wearing masks in public streets. “I am a BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday morning. “I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc. Thank you!”

Not included: Stricter use-of-force standards and oversight

Another key Democratic priority—subjecting federal immigration agents to the same use-of-force standards and independent investigative requirements as local police—also appears to be absent from the proposal. Democrats say that demand is essential to ensuring that incidents involving violence are reviewed impartially. 

“One of the things at the top of my list has been that we have independent, credible investigations into wrongful conduct by DHS officials,” Van Hollen tells TIME. “As we speak, the FBI and the Administration are refusing to share information about the Alex Pretti and Renée Good’s case with local and state officials… How can we trust a department that declared the victims domestic terrorists to conduct independent investigations? So that's one thing that's nowhere to be found in their offer, as far as I can tell.”

Included: Funding for TSA, Coast Guard, and other DHS agencies

Where the deal offers Democrats their clearest win is in funding  virtually all of the Department of Homeland Security, except for ICE’s core deportation operations. The proposal would restore funding for the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and other critical components of the department. But some Democrats fear the deal will rob their party of their most potent leverage. While the shutdown fight has focused on immigration enforcement, ICE received tens of billions of dollars in last year’s Big, Beautiful Bill, allowing the agency to continue operating even without new appropriations. 

The impact of the shutdown has been especially visible at airports. Nearly 11% of TSA workers missed shifts in recent days, and hundreds have quit since the shutdown began, contributing to long lines and mounting delays nationwide.