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**JANUARY 29, 2026**

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The phrase “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” is hackneyed, but two stories broke within minutes of one another [link removed] yesterday that made the phrase appropriate. First, Senate Majority Leader John Thune seemed to warm to Democratic demands to negotiate changes to immigration enforcement operations as a condition of funding the Department of Homeland Security; then, a bit later, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that his caucus had whittled those changes down to a fine nub. It's a story we’ve seen before from Congress’s version of the Washington Generals.

**–David Dayen, executive editor**

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J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

Democrats Determined to Squander Advantage on DHS Funding [link removed]

Republicans in Congress appear to be bending to Democratic demands to attach some conditions to future funding for the Department of Homeland Security. But those just-released conditions may not do much to change the trajectory of the brutal and deadly Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) incursions.

An emerging potential deal would split the DHS appropriations bill off from the other five funding bills passed by the House last week, and pass that yearlong funding separately, while issuing a continuing resolution (CR) for the DHS funding at last year’s levels as negotiations ensue.

This reflects a Republican awareness that it would be untenable to hold other funding, including for the Defense Department, hostage because they don’t want to do their jobs and debate the future of DHS after the murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

Democrats have said all along that they would be willing to immediately pass the five other funding bills and avoid a partial shutdown there. This represents Republicans moving toward their position, however grudgingly.

But just as this is happening, the Democrats’ list of demands appears to have shrunk after internal deliberations.

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