White House border czar Tom Homan walked into a suite of offices just off the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday and sat down with a handful of centrist Democratic senators, without Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer anywhere in the room. The meeting lasted more than an hour. And it may signal that the White House has decided Schumer is the obstacle, not the path, to reopening the Department of Homeland Security.
Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Angus King of Maine, and Patty Murray of Washington attended the session, The Hill reported. Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, said it was the first time Republican senators and Homan had met face-to-face with Democratic centrists to talk about restoring DHS funding.
DHS funding lapsed on Feb. 14. That was more than five weeks ago. And the White House's decision to bypass Schumer and appeal directly to rank-and-file Democrats amounts to a blunt verdict: the Democratic leader's negotiating posture has stalled the process long enough.
Schumer has led Democratic talks with the White House over reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. He and other Democratic leaders, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, submitted their latest offer to the White House on Monday night.
But Republicans say those negotiations have gone nowhere productive. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Tuesday that it took Democrats 18 days to respond to one White House offer. He did not mince words.
"The Democrats seem intent on dragging out this political issue. We got to have a meaningful conversation where we sit down at the table and actually work these issues out. You can't get there if you're not sitting down at the table."
So the White House went around the table Schumer set, and built a new one. Republicans believe they have a better chance of cutting a deal with seven or eight Democratic centrists than with a leadership team under intense pressure from the party's left flank. That left flank is demanding Schumer hold firm on a 10-point list that includes requiring federal immigration officers to obtain judicial warrants before entering a residence, banning officers from wearing masks during operations, and mandating body cameras.
The strategy has recent precedent. Before Thanksgiving, eight Democratic caucus members, King among them, broke ranks with Schumer's leadership to vote for a government funding bill that ended a 43-day federal shutdown. That shutdown had dragged on for six weeks before centrists cracked.
Homan emerged from Thursday's session and kept his comments short. "We're going to keep talking," he told reporters. "We need to get the government open and we're going to keep having discussions."
Britt struck a more pointed note, framing the meeting as a breakthrough in itself:
"This is the first time our Democratic colleagues have sat down with us and obviously I really appreciated Homan and his leadership in the room. That's the first step in the right direction."
Murray, the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, offered a cooler assessment. She said the two sides were still "a long ways apart." Hassan and King declined to comment as they left.
Cortez Masto released a statement through her office late Thursday afternoon. She acknowledged the White House's outreach but drew a hard line on substance.
"Democrats have made their demands very clear. I'm glad that the White House is talking with us, but they have a lot of work to do. 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."
A Democratic source familiar with the talks offered a similar framing, claiming the White House would not succeed in peeling members away. "The White House may try to pick people off, but we made it clear that they wouldn't be able to," the source said. "We're happy to talk about the best ways to rein in ICE and Border Patrol, and we need Republicans to work with us to finally put these reforms into law."
The question is whether that unity holds. The fact that four Democratic senators showed up at all, without Schumer, without Jeffries, without DeLauro, tells its own story. These are not backbenchers looking for camera time. Murray is a senior appropriator. Cortez Masto represents a swing state. King has already demonstrated a willingness to break with leadership when shutdowns drag on.
And Schumer's position is weakening from another direction. Illinois Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, described as the favorite to win the Illinois Senate race, said in an interview with progressive YouTube commentator Jack Cocchiarella that she would refuse to vote for Schumer as Democratic leader.
"I've made it clear that I would not support Chuck Schumer as leader of the Democratic caucus because I think right now what I'm hearing from voters all across the state of Illinois is that they are fed up. They're fed up with what's happening in Washington."
Stratton added that Illinois voters "are telling me very clearly that they're looking for fighters and not folders." That language, aimed squarely at Schumer from the left, captures the bind he occupies. Progressives accuse him of folding too easily. Republicans accuse him of refusing to negotiate at all. And now centrist members of his own caucus are meeting with the White House without him.
The pressure is real. Schumer faces a caucus that fractured once already during the 43-day shutdown last year. Murray herself did not support the deal that ended that standoff, which may explain her willingness to engage now, she wants a say in whatever comes next, rather than watching from the sideline as centrists cut their own terms.
The administration's play is straightforward. If Schumer won't move, find Democrats who will. Republicans are offering stronger rules on body cameras and other reforms as a potential sweetener. The full scope of what was discussed Thursday remains unclear, neither side detailed specific terms beyond the broad categories already on the table.
But the meeting itself shifts the dynamic. Schumer's leverage depends on holding his caucus together. Every centrist who sits down with Homan without Schumer's blessing erodes that leverage. And every week DHS operates without full funding gives Republicans more ammunition to argue that Democrats are the ones prolonging the standoff, even as security concerns mount across the country.
Thune has accused Schumer of playing political games rather than engaging in good-faith negotiation. Thursday's meeting was the White House's way of calling that bluff, going directly to the senators who have to face voters in swing states and asking them whether they want to keep waiting on a leader whose own future is uncertain.
The centrist Democrats insist they won't be picked off. Maybe. But they showed up. They talked for over an hour. And Schumer wasn't there.
Homan said talks would continue. Britt called it a first step. The Democratic source insisted the caucus would hold firm. Those three positions cannot all be true at the same time.
What is clear is that the White House has decided to treat Schumer as a bottleneck rather than a negotiating partner. Whether that produces a deal or simply deepens the standoff depends on how many Democratic senators decide their constituents care more about reopening DHS than about protecting Schumer's bargaining position. The early signs, a shifting power landscape in the Senate and a caucus already tested by one prolonged shutdown, suggest the White House isn't wrong to try.
When your own members start taking meetings without you, and your potential successors are calling you a folder on YouTube, the leverage isn't what it used to be.
