Washington — A group of senators met with border czar Tom Homan on Thursday as negotiators continue to seek an agreement to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement and end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
More than a month into the funding lapse, the meeting marked a key development as progress to date has appeared stagnant. Democrats and the White House have been trading proposals in recent weeks, but the two sides have remained far apart.
“First step is dialogue, and this is the very first time that we have had that” in six weeks, Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama said. “I hope that we will see more of that in the days to come.”
She added that Thursday’s meeting was not a negotiation, but a conversation, and there is “no guarantee of anything.”
“I think it was helpful,” she said.
While Democrats have been trading offers with the White House, Senate Republicans have pushed publicly for member-level talks in recent weeks. Democrats have argued that they needed assurances that the administration is serious about the negotiations, while voicing skepticism that talks with Senate Republicans would yield a breakthrough.
At the hearing, Democrats made clear that distance remains between their demands and what the White House has offered, according to a Democratic aide.
“I’m glad that the White House is talking with us, but they have a lot of work to do,” Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada said in a statement. “My colleagues and I are not going to vote for any deal that doesn’t include real reforms on warrants, masks, training, and our other demands.”
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Meanwhile, pressure has mounted to fund the many agencies DHS oversees, including TSA. Hundreds of TSA officers have quit in recent weeks as workers have gone without pay, while staffing issues have created chaos at airports. Democrats have tried to pass funding for individual agencies, but Republicans have blocked those attempts. Republicans have in turn tried to approve funds for all of DHS on a temporary basis, which Democrats have likewise blocked.
The talks come as DHS leadership is undergoing a change after the actions of federal law enforcement have been intensely scrutinized in the wake of the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota in January. GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma is expected to be confirmed in the coming days as the new DHS secretary, replacing Kristi Noem. Homan was brought in to lead operations in Minnesota as Noem’s leadership faced criticism from members of both parties.
GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top appropriators in the Senate, were in the meeting with Homan. Other appropriators, including GOP Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, were also in attendance, as were Sens. Angus King, a Maine independent, and Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat. King, Hassan and Shaheen were involved in negotiations to end the longest government shutdown in history last fall.
Leaving the meeting, a number of senators declined to comment on the private conversation. Hoeven told reporters “we made some progress,” but Murray said the two sides remain a “long ways apart.”
The Senate is set to leave town for a two-week recess at the end of next week. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters earlier in the day that the impasse “needs to get resolved by the end of next week.”
“I can’t see us taking a break if the government’s still shut down,” he added.
Thune said ahead of the meeting that it marked a positive development, saying “we’ve been encouraging this for a while, and glad to see both sides sitting down.”
Homan said leaving the meeting that “we need to get the government back open.”
