Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego said on Wednesday that Congress could separately fund parts of the Department of Homeland Security while senators remain divided on reforms to immigration enforcement.
“I think it’s very difficult for us to get there,” Gallego said of a possible reform deal between Republicans and Democrats.
The appropriations process for several federal departments became a major political battleground after the January deaths of two protestors at the hands of federal immigration agents. While 2026 funding for most other departments has become law, a group of Senate Democrats succeeded in limiting DHS funding to two weeks, buying time for negotiations over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But Gallego told AZPM News that Republicans don’t “understand how unhappy people are and how unsafe people feel now because of the actions of ICE and DHS.”
Senate Republicans have thrown cold water on Democratic demands, which include ending ICE’s ability to use racial profiling in arrests, allowing oversight of ICE activity by state and local governments, banning most agents from wearing facemasks and requiring judicial warrants to enter suspects’ homes and vehicles.
Gallego has also called for new policies establishing clear standards around use of force by ICE agents.
In a January poll by Ipsos, 58% of respondents said ICE immigration enforcement has gone “too far,” including 92% of Democrats and 20% of Republicans.
Speaking on Fox News on Wednesday, Senate Republican leader John Thune said the Trump administration has already taken steps to address concerns about ICE’s Minnesota operations.
“We are not going to do things that are going to undermine law enforcement officials’ ability to do their jobs,” he said.
The Trump administration has recently appeared more willing to put limits on immigration enforcement, exemplified by the introduction of body cameras for ICE agents in Minnesota and President Donald Trump’s signing of the two-week DHS funding bill.
If Senators fail to strike a deal before Feb. 13, the agency that administers TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard could shut down.
In this scenario, ICE would continue to operate using over $70 billion in extra funding included last year in Republican-backed budget legislation, well above the amounts the agency typically receives in regular annual appropriations.
“If this administration does not want to reform themselves, they can just pull from that money,” Gallego said.
Gallego said using the threat of a shutdown to other functions within DHS — such as airport security and disaster relief — as leverage to pass annual ICE funding would not sway Democrats.
“You can fund FEMA, you can fund TSA,” Gallego said.
Gallego said he would support legislation funding FEMA, TSA and other DHS agencies while excluding immigration enforcement.
“They already have $75 billion. It doesn’t necessarily mean I have to make it easier for them,” he said.
Gallego called for firing presidential advisor Stephen Miller, widely reported as the architect of Trump’s deportation policies, grounding his criticisms in personal experience.
“It’s a culture issue. I was in the military for many years, in some of the hardest situations of the (Iraq War), with 18, 19-year-old men being exposed to combat fire and then having to turn around and be professional among Iraqi civilians,” he said.
He said there is “no way” to make federal immigration agencies accountable and change their culture without replacing figures like Miller, who said federal agents have “immunity” after an ICE agent killed 37-year-old protestor Renée Good in January.
Gallego and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, also a Democrat, had both voted against the bill that created the two-week negotiation period for ICE reforms, arguing that the agency could not receive any extra funds in current circumstances.
Kelly has called for restricting ICE agents’ use of force and firearms, requiring agents to carry IDs and firing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
