Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman is voicing pessimism about Congress reaching a spending deal for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), citing his own party’s opposition to funding immigration enforcement absent sweeping restrictions.
Fetterman told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a brief interview that congressional Democrats are unlikely to agree to another short-term patch for DHS that extends funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or a year-long spending agreement. Lawmakers have just nine days to strike a deal to fund the sprawling agency — overseeing the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and federal immigration enforcement — ahead of a Feb. 13 shutdown deadline.
“At this point, there may not be a Democratic appetite to vote for ICE [funding],” Fetterman told the DCNF, adding that he supports some changes to immigration enforcement.
Fetterman, who frequently breaks with the far-left flank of his party, also told the DCNF that he rejects the calls from some of his colleagues to dismantle ICE.
“I strongly reject this ‘Abolish ICE’ and some of the extremism about that,” Fetterman continued, adding that the viral slogan making a comeback among progressives risks backfiring. “We’ve [Democrats] been there before. They scream about it, and then they have to back away and disavow those views.”
Congress approved a five-bill appropriations package and a two-week extension of DHS funding at current levels, which President Donald Trump signed into law on Tuesday. Nearly all House Democrats — and roughly half of Senate Democrats — opposed the short-term patch despite pushing for the two-week funding extension to allow for negotiations with the White House over immigration enforcement.
Top Republicans have already shot down several of Democrats’ proposed reforms to federal immigration enforcement, including new warrant requirements and prohibiting officers from wearing masks.
Democrats have also rejected another stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR) to temporarily fund DHS past the Feb. 13 deadline.
“There’s no chance of my support for that,” Democratic Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, one of 23 Senate Democrats who voted Friday for the two-week DHS funding extension, told the DCNF.
Democratic leadership have yet to send Republicans a list of proposed reforms to immigration enforcement despite the imminent funding cliff.
“We’re going to have tough, strong legislation,” Schumer said during a press conference on Wednesday. Democrats have also rejected a measure, floated by Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, to criminalize the conduct of state and local officials who uphold sanctuary policies to provide cover for illegal immigrants.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has also said that reaching a DHS funding deal by the mid-February deadline is near impossible given the time constraints.
Thune also accused top Democrats Wednesday of dragging their feet on a deal to fund DHS — and immigration enforcement — ahead of the shutdown deadline.
“He and, for that matter, Leader Schumer, both are afraid of their shadows, and they’re getting a lot of blowback and pressure from their left,” Thune told reporters. “So, I don’t think they want to — particularly in [Jeffries’] case, I don’t think he wants to make a deal at all. I think he wants the issue.”
Republicans gave a $75 billion cash infusion to ICE for detention and removal efforts in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill in July 2025 — meaning a DHS shutdown would disproportionately impact non-immigration functions under the agency’s purview.
However, some Democrats appear willing to support a shutdown to protest immigration enforcement — despite ICE operations likely continuing at full throttle during a prolonged DHS funding lapse.
“This is not an agency that the systems of accountability they’re talking about will rectify the problems that Americans are seeing, which is that they violate our civil rights with impunity,” Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told the DCNF. “We have a serious, serious problem that has to be addressed in a much more comprehensive way.”
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