The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is facing the possibility it could run out of funding next week, as Democrats press for reforms to its immigration enforcement tactics.But Republican leaders on Thursday pushed back against the Democratic proposals, rejecting them as moot.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listSenate Majority Leader John Thune, for instance, called the demands “unrealistic and unserious”.“This is not a blank check situation where Republicans just do agree to a list of Democrat demands,” Thune said, adding that the two parties appeared to be at an impasse.“We aren’t anywhere close to having any sort of an agreement.”Congress needs to pass funding legislation for the DHS by February 13, or else its programmes could be temporarily shuttered. Demonstrators protest against immigration enforcement operations on February 4 in Nogales, Arizona [Ross D Franklin/AP Photo]Ten demands from DemocratsCurrently, Democrats are focused on changes to DHS’s immigration operations, particularly through programmes like Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).But any funding shortfall stands to affect other Homeland Security functions as well, including the services offered by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which conducts security screenings at airports.Top Democrats, however, have argued that a Homeland Security shutdown is necessary, given the abuses that have unfolded under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Advertisement Just last month, two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, were killed at the hands of immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in incidents that were caught on bystander video.Their shooting d …
