Senate Democrats say they want to end the government shutdown but have repeatedly blocked GOP attempts to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they push for immigration enforcement reforms.

On Friday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a news conference following an antisemitic attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in her state that “certainly” Congress must fund DHS. 

However, Slotkin and most Senate Democrats have voted four times to block DHS funding, including several attempts to temporarily reopen the agency while negotiations continue.

Slotkin is just one of several Senate Democrats calling for an end to the shutdown. Republicans argue the votes are part of a broader Democratic strategy to blame them for blocking efforts to reopen DHS.

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Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., accused Democrats of trying to shift blame for the shutdown. 

“Well, that’s what they do, right? And they’re good at it. They’re really good at it,” he told Fox News Digital. “And the big difference is they have 90% of the legacy media backing them up.”

“So it’s hard, but again, four times this afternoon, the Democrats voted against funding DHS,” he continued.  

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of using the federal workers of a variety of agencies under DHS, like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as “hostages.”

“I remind my Republican colleagues, we’re going to be back here again and again, winning this debate and eventually winning the American people,” Schumer said.

But Slotkin and others are now signaling an openness to funding Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which many Democrats have sought to deny federal funding to, in addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“We need, in my view, to cut away all the conversation on ICE, which is its own conversation,” Slotkin said at the news conference.

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Republicans have sharply criticized Democrats for denying funding to DHS despite a series of terror-related attacks across the country and a heightened threat environment amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict involving Iran.

An alleged ISIS-inspired bomb plot in New York City and a deadly shooting involving a convicted Islamic State supporter at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, rocked the country last week.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he supports funding DHS after voting against full-year appropriations for the department Thursday.

“I think we should,” Warner replied when asked if Democrats should break the deadlock by CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday.

“What we have offered is let’s pay TSA, let’s pay FEMA, let’s pay … the Coast Guard, let’s pay CISA. I’d even say let’s pay Customs and Border Patrol,” Warner said. “If we can’t agree on ICE reforms, let’s pay everybody else.”

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However, it is not clear that enough Democrats would be willing to fund CBP while still negotiating reforms to ICE to end the shutdown. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has been the lone Democrat so far to cross-party lines and support a full-year DHS appropriations bill.

“Democrats’ position is simple: we want reforms to rein in ICE and Border Patrol,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said on the Senate floor Thursday. “We also want TSA and FEMA funded — but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ICE to get it done.”

Senate Republicans have rejected Democrats’ attempts to fund every agency under DHS except for those handling immigration enforcement.

Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., last week blocked an effort by Murray to fund the non-immigration portions of DHS.

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Republicans’ resistance to efforts to partially reopen the agency comes as negotiations between the White House and Democrats have stalled.

“Members need to get in a room, have tough conversations, and figure out a pathway for the American people,” Britt told Fox News Digital. “Their safety and security should matter more than politics in November, and unfortunately, Democrats continue to try to take hostages.”

EXCLUSIVE: Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow has been wasting no time shaking up the path to American citizenship. And two terrorist attacks in the United States this past week have renewed scrutiny of immigration vetting and national security safeguards.

A gunman rammed a vehicle into Temple Israel Thursday, a synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, Thursday. One security guard was injured in what officials described as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community. 

In a separate Thursday incident, authorities say a terrorist attack by a military veteran and ISIS supporter at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, left two people injured and two dead, including the shooter, after the suspect allegedly opened fire inside an ROTC classroom. 

Just weeks into the job in August 2025, Edlow called for a major overhaul of the U.S. naturalization test — blasting the current version as too soft and out of step with what Congress envisioned.

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In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Edlow said the civics and English exam, which forms the backbone of the naturalization process, fails to reflect the knowledge and assimilation he believes should be required to become an American.

“The test needs to reflect the letter and the spirit of what Congress intended,” Edlow said. “It’s important for people to understand English, our history, our government … and the way the test is written and executed right now doesn’t meet that bar.”

Under the current format, naturalization applicants must correctly answer six out of 10 civics questions randomly selected from a list of 100, covering topics like the Constitution, U.S. history, geography and civic responsibilities. They must also read one sentence aloud and write one simple sentence correctly in English.

Edlow says that’s not enough. He wants the test to probe deeper — presenting a broader cross-section of U.S. principles — and for English skills to be evaluated throughout the entire naturalization interview, not just in isolated reading and writing exercises.

“I want adjudicators to really be listening and talking throughout the interview,” he said. “Switch up some of the wording … and see if the individuals are still able to comprehend the questions. That’s a better gauge of readiness.”

Edlow said the test must preserve the integrity of the process and reflect assimilation expectations. He also pointed to a recent executive order declaring English the national language, calling language fluency “an imperative part” of the American dream.

The director also took aim at long-standing flaws in the H-1B visa system, which permits U.S. companies to hire high-skilled foreign workers in specialty fields.

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“Companies are going for the highest-skilled workers but paying them at the lowest wage level,” he said. “That’s undercutting U.S. graduates, especially in STEM fields.”

He cited cases when third-party contracting firms helped employers lay off American workers — sometimes even requiring them to train their own foreign replacements — as evidence of a program being exploited to suppress wages.

Vice President JD Vance has echoed a similar sentiment. In July 2025, he called out Microsoft for laying off around 9,000 American workers while applying for 4,700 H1-B visas. 

“I don’t want companies to fire 9,000 American workers and then to go and say, ‘We can’t find workers here in America.’ That’s a bulls— story.”

The visa program has emerged as a political flashpoint within the GOP, creating a rift between MAGA populists and pro-business conservatives. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said he’d “go to war” in support of the H1-B visa program and branded its Republican opponents “hateful, unrepentant racists.” 

To tighten oversight of the program, Edlow said USCIS will work with the Department of Labor to expand worksite enforcement and ensure that wages and job functions match what’s on paper.

“We want to make sure those brought over are truly commensurate with the roles they’re filling — and not part of a cost-cutting scheme,” he added.

On the issue of welfare-related immigration policy, Edlow said USCIS is preparing to revisit the public charge rule — a legal standard that bars green cards for applicants likely to become reliant on public assistance.

The rule has existed in some form for over a century but was more strictly interpreted during the Trump administration to include certain non-cash benefits like Medicaid or housing aid. The Biden administration returned to guidance that did not take non-cash benefits into account. 

Edlow said changes would take time. 

“It’s something we’ve got to study and get right,” he said. “We need to look at the means-tested benefits being offered and ensure our adjudicators know what to look for to determine if someone would be a burden on U.S. taxpayers.”

Beyond policy changes, Edlow flagged the growing USCIS case backlog as a top operational threat — one he says now carries national security implications.

“Backlogs that continue to grow are nothing short of a national security threat to this country,” he said, blaming the Biden administration for shifting agency resources away from legal immigration priorities in response to record-breaking illegal border crossings.

While he pledged to reduce adjudication times, Edlow warned that shortcuts won’t be part of the strategy.

“There may be short-term pain,” he said. “But we will decrease the backlog at a steady clip while protecting the integrity and security of the system.”