Senate and House minority leaders Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) subtly weakened their already tepid demands for ICE reforms in a press conference on Wednesday — before negotiations with Republicans even started.
In a press conference about the Democrats’ demands, the two leaders reiterated their belief that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal immigration agents should not be allowed to wear masks. But they both qualified their statements by saying that this prohibition isn’t sweeping.
“Certainly I think there’s agreement that no masks should be deployed in an arbitrary and capricious fashion,” said Jeffries.
“They need identification and no masks, except in extraordinary and unusual circumstances,” said Schumer later in the conference, describing masked, unidentified agents as “secret police.”
The press conference took place after the two leaders met and expressed unity on their demands for reform.
Schumer reiterated this call in an interview with MS NOW on Thursday, saying, “There should be no masks, except in the most unusual of circumstances, you know, some guy’s picture was put up by a terrorist group or something.” His comment ignores, perhaps, that the Trump administration is seeking to characterize any dissidents as “terrorists,” internal documentation has shown.
The softening of their wording comes just 11 days after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti, and before negotiations have even officially started. Schumer said on Wednesday that Democrats are “ready to sit down and negotiate,” but negotiations have not yet begun.
Schumer and Jeffries have sent Republicans a list of 10 demands. They include Schumer’s original demands for “use of force” standards and body camera mandates, as well as other demands like an end to racial profiling, ensuring state and local police involvement on investigations, and regulation on the uniforms and equipment worn by officers.
These demands are far weaker than what many critics have said is needed to actually stymie the Trump administration’s violent raids.
First, if these demands are met, Democrats would help Republicans pass the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding — something that many Democrats have said should be a nonstarter as long as the raids are going on in order for the party to maintain leverage, or in order to dismantle ICE or DHS altogether.
Further, many of the demands themselves encompass existing guidelines or procedures that DHS officers are being instructed to break. For instance, one of the demands is for DHS officers to be required to have a warrant to enter private property — something already explicitly protected by the Fourth Amendment. Another is for DHS to be required to verify “that a person is not a U.S. citizen before holding them in immigration detention” — something already barred under the law regarding a practice that’s cruel even when applied to non-citizens.
The demands have already incensed left-leaning members of Congress.
“I’m gonna continue to tell you that Schumer needs to get the hell out over and over and over until he does,” Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Illinois) told Axios on Thursday. “He continues to demonstrate to us that he can’t meet the moment.”
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