Democrats Using Shutdown Threat To Rewrite Immigration Enforcement

 Another government shutdown looks increasingly likely by the end of the week. Democrats are demanding that major changes to Department of Homeland Security enforcement policy be written directly into the budget agreement. Those changes would largely shut down President Trump’s deportation efforts.

Trump has already made some changes. For example, DHS removed Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino – who had become a political lightning rod – from his assignment in Minneapolis. Democrats, however, are pressing for far more sweeping changes. They want to require judicial warrants for immigration arrests, force ICE agents to be easily identifiable, and grant states the authority to conduct their own investigations of federal ICE agents. Democrats have also demanded body cameras for ICE agents, even though the current budget proposal already funds them.

After the unprecedented percentage increase in violent crime during the Biden administration, Democrats may be pushing to halt deportations to prevent Republicans from getting credit for the sharp drop in violent crime that appears to have started last year. New evidence shows that illegal aliens commit crimes  at rates at least 3.4 times higher than their share of the population. At the same time, about 47% of ICE detainees have criminal charges or convictions in the United States, and it is possible that an additional 23% have criminal records in their home countries. Removing hundreds of thousands of offenders through immigration enforcement could therefore have a meaningful impact on crime in the United States and help explain the huge drop in crime last year. Strong enforcement could also deter future crimes by signaling that arrest for criminal activity is likely to result in deportation, not release back into the community.

The vast majority of ICE’s 600,000 arrests and detentions last year through the beginning of December relied on administrative warrants or warrants issued by immigration judges. Requiring judicial warrants would overwhelm the federal court system. There are only 638 active U.S. district court judges and 563 magistrate judges nationwide. To keep pace with current enforcement levels, each judge would need to process roughly 500 warrants. Even assuming judges wanted to move quickly – and even assuming all paperwork was perfectly prepared – that would add weeks of work on top of already heavy caseloads. Many judges, most of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents (roughly 60%), could simply refuse or delay issuing warrants, effectively halting detentions and deportations altogether.

Democrats also insist that ICE agents reveal their identities during operations. ICE agents have adopted masks for a reason. Assaults on federal immigration officers surged by 1,347% in 2025. Death threats against agents skyrocketed by roughly 8,000%, and vehicular attacks increased by 3,200%. Activists have followed ICE agents to their homes, shouted warnings to neighbors such as “ICE lives on your street,” and harassed family members. In one reported incident, someone called an agent’s spouse and said, “F*** you. Did you hear what happened to the Nazis after World War II? Because it’s what’s going to happen to your family.” Others have openly discussed plans to “swat” agents’ homes.

Democrats also demand that states and local governments be given authority to investigate or regulate federal ICE agents. That position directly conflicts with the long-standing Democratic argument that immigration enforcement is exclusively a federal responsibility. When Democrats controlled the presidency, they repeatedly went to court to block Republican-led states from asserting authority over immigration enforcement.

In 2012, after Arizona enacted SB 1070 – a law that made unlawful presence a state crime and empowered state and local police to enforce immigration laws – the Obama administration sued Arizona. The Supreme Court struck down several major provisions of the law, reaffirming federal supremacy over immigration enforcement. In 2023, Texas and Louisiana sued the Biden administration over its immigration enforcement priorities, and once again the Supreme Court ruled in favor of federal authority.

Democratic demands for body cameras are especially puzzling because the very spending bill they are threatening to filibuster already includes $20 million that “must be used” to purchase body cameras for ICE and Border Patrol agents. The bill also provides funding for de-escalation training for agents who regularly interact with the public – another long-standing Democratic demand.

ICE employs about 13,000 sworn agents and officers. With body cameras costing between $800 and $1,500 each, $20 million is enough to equip every sworn officer with a high-quality camera. In reality, only about 6,000 ICE officers work in Enforcement and Removal Operations – the division that most frequently engages in arrests, traffic stops, and workplace operations – meaning the funding more than covers those agents most likely to interact with the public.

Democrats are using the threat of yet another government shutdown to force sweeping policy changes that would sharply curtail federal immigration enforcement. Some of their demands even contradict long-standing Democratic positions on federal supremacy in immigration. But Democrats have one goal in mind: Stop Trump from deporting illegal aliens.

John R. Lott Jr. is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. He served as the senior advisor for research and statistics in the Office of Justice Programs and the Office of Legal Policy in the U.S. Department of Justice during 2020-21.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2026/01/29/democrats_using_shutdown_threat_to_rewrite_immigration_enforcement_153769.html