White House offers concession on body cameras in bid to end DHS shutdown

The Trump administration has offered concessions to Democrats to end the DHS shutdown. But they all come with caveats.

WASHINGTON — Seeking to end the rapidly worsening shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, the White House has offered to expand the use of body-worn cameras for federal immigration enforcement agents and limit their activities at churches, schools, and hospitals.

But a month into the crisis, the Trump administration is still holding firm on one of the more contentious parts of the debate to reform the 9/11-era Cabinet agency, opposing any kind of ban on masks for law enforcement officers.

The concessions were detailed in a March 17 letter to Senate Republican leaders from top Trump administration officials about the status of negotiations between the White House and congressional Democrats.

As terrorism threats rise and airport security lines grow longer across the country, the letter underscores the intensifying pressure on the Trump administration and lawmakers to end the shutdown of the agency that has been widely scrutinized since the killings of two Minnesotans by Homeland Security agents earlier this year.

It also emphasized just how entrenched Republicans and Democrats remain in their respective political positions, even as the shutdown's impacts multiply by the day. The letter made no mention of banning face coverings, something Democrats have insisted is a priority. And even its most significant concessions included caveats (or have already been agreed to in other ways or laid out in federal law).