Senate Democrats sent over their latest proposal for immigration enforcement changes at the Department of Homeland Security as a shutdown of the vast department drags into its second month.
The offer, confirmed by a White House official and two other people with knowledge of the matter, is the latest of several the two parties have traded since the funding lapse began Feb. 14. Little progress has been made since toward an agreement that would fund agencies including TSA, FEMA, ICE and the Coast Guard.
Democrats have vowed to block funding until the administration agrees to immigration enforcement changes in the wake of federal agents killing two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. Republicans, meanwhile, have rejected Democrats’ efforts to lop off immigration enforcement agencies and fund the rest of DHS.
The White House is “currently reviewing” the offer, the official said. But a top GOP aide immediately cast doubt of the seriousness of the proposal.
“It took 18 days for them to hit ‘Ctrl C’ and ‘Ctrl V,’” Ryan Wrasse, a spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune wrote on X, referring to the copy-and-paste function on a personal computer.
Thune later told reporters that the offer “didn’t change much from where we were.”
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