By Lauren Fox, Sarah Ferris, CNN
(CNN) — Republicans’ warning for President Donald Trump is growing louder with the Department of Homeland Security set to shut down in just days: Don’t feel public pressure to relent on an issue central to his campaign.
Even as the White House has engaged with Democrats over reforms to DHS, a growing chorus of members have urged Trump and his team to play hardball and instead fight for GOP priorities, like cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities in exchange for any Democratic demands on federal immigration enforcement.
One such appeal came from Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt, who golfed and watched the Superbowl with the president over the weekend. Schmitt’s view was the president didn’t need to yield to the other party’s demands, even with that critical funding deadline bearing down on Capitol Hill.
“We should not be, in any way, shape or form kneecapping ICE,” Schmitt told CNN. “President Trump ran on this issue. So again, I think this is a home game for us, and if the Democrats want to continue down this road, it’s just a loser for them.”
Bolstering Republicans’ resolve if that Trump’s signature policy bill last summer injected DHS with billions for immigration enforcement – enough, they argue, to cover operations for months, if not years, to come. The impact of a shutdown instead would be felt primarily by other program like FEMA and TSA — something they say would make it harder for Democrats to defend their position in a prolonged stalemate.
“I don’t know why we are entertaining policy initiatives on funding bills. If you want to have a debate and they want to put forth this stupid 20-point plan in legislation, let’s have the debate. They’ll lose,” Schmitt challenged. (Democrats have sent the White House a series of demands from requiring the use of body cameras for agents to reining in roving patrols.)
After the death of Alex Pretti, the window for a negotiation over the contentious and thorny issue of immigration enforcement tactics appeared to open in Congress, a rare but serious opportunity for lawmakers to find a middle ground on an issue that has befuddled lawmakers for decades. But after two weeks of fraught talks, stalled negotiations and public blaming, both sides appear to be recalcitrant, retreating to their long-held views on the issue.
The White House had pushed Republicans to fund the rest of the government while negotiating DHS funding separately, but conservatives are newly emboldened that the president can easily weather a partial shutdown with little political cost while blaming Democrats for being soft on immigration enforcement.
“I’ve made clear, I’m not gonna support anything that I think is detrimental to law enforcement,” Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, recently told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Bernie Moreno said, in his view, “they [Democrats] can take the DHS appropriations bill or they can shut down FEMA, Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service and CISA. That’s up to them.”
“I wouldn’t offer anything. That’s my point of view,” the Ohio Republican added.
Many Democrats, meanwhile, initially interpreted GOP comments about concerns over ICE tactics as a tacit recognition that the administration may have gone too far in its efforts to ramp up deportations in major cities around the country.
And many in the party see the death of Pretti and Renee Nicole Good at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis as a moment of reckoning requiring them to force significant reforms to US Customs and Immigration Enforcement, even if it risks another prolonged shutdown just months after a historic shutdown yielded little in terms of concessions from the administration.
“It’s really important that Secretary Noem not allow a band of untrained officers –