Let’s be very clear about what Democrats are demanding in exchange for funding the Department of Homeland Security.

They want ICE agents to remove their masks.

They want ICE agents to wear personally identifiable information on their uniforms.

They want this in an environment where death threats against agents have increased 8,000%.

That’s not a negotiating position. That’s a targeting package.

The Shutdown They Caused

House Speaker Mike Johnson laid out the timeline on Fox News Sunday.

Eleven of twelve appropriations bills have been passed. Bipartisan. Bicameral. The work was done.

Democrats broke out the twelfth bill — Department of Homeland Security funding — as a separate package. They stripped it from the bundle specifically so they could hold it hostage.

“They modified it because they broke out the Department of Homeland Security bill in the last package, which sends it back to us,” Johnson explained.

One bill. One department. The department responsible for immigration enforcement.

Democrats don’t have a problem with government funding. They have a problem with ICE doing its job.

43 Days Last Fall and They Want Another Round

Johnson reminded viewers of recent history.

“After the 43-day shutdown last fall the Democrats hoisted upon America, the longest in history…”

Forty-three days. The longest government shutdown in American history. Caused by Democrats.

Now they’re engineering another one — this time specifically targeting the agency that deports criminal aliens.

The pattern is clear. Democrats will shut down any part of government that enforces laws they don’t like. And they’ll blame Republicans for the chaos they created.

Masks Off, Names On

Shannon Bream stated the Democratic demands plainly.

“They want masks off of these ICE agents. They want them wearing ID that tells exactly who they are.”

Think about what this means in practice.

An ICE agent conducts an arrest in Minneapolis. No mask. Name badge clearly visible. The crowd films everything. Within hours, the agent’s full name, home address, spouse’s name, and children’s school are posted on social media.

That’s not a hypothetical. That’s what’s already happening to agents whose identities leak. Doxxing campaigns. Harassment at their homes. Threats against their families.

Democrats want to institutionalize it. Make it policy. Require agents to hand their identities to people who want them dead.

8,000% Increase in Death Threats

DHS has reported that death threats against ICE agents have surged 8,000%.

Assaults on agents: up 1,300%.

Vehicular attacks: up 3,200%.

We’ve heard the audio. Callers telling agents to kill themselves. Wishing their wives and children dead. Threatening paralysis and murder.

In this environment, Democrats want agents stripped of the anonymity that protects them and their families.

Johnson was direct: “Those two things are conditions that would create further danger. When you have people doxxing them and targeting them, of course we don’t want their personal identification out there on the streets.”

“Of course” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Because to any rational person, the answer is obvious. You don’t unmask law enforcement officers in a city where people are trying to kill them.

Minnesota’s Leadership Created the Danger

Johnson identified the source of the chaos.

“The problem that you have in Minnesota is that you have the Governor and local leaders who have been basically inciting violence in some cases. They are encouraging citizens to impede federal law enforcement, and that sets up a dangerous, chaotic situation.”

Governor Walz called ICE agents “Gestapo.” Congressman Swalwell said operations should be “crushed.” Philadelphia DA Krasner threatened to “hunt down” agents “like Nazis.”

When elected officials use language like that, unstable people act on it. Death threats spike. Confrontations escalate. Agents get hurt.

And now the same party whose rhetoric created the danger wants to remove the protections keeping agents alive.

No Other Law Enforcement Works This Way

Undercover police officers don’t wear name tags.

SWAT teams wear balaclavas.

FBI agents on sensitive operations don’t broadcast their identities.

DEA agents working drug busts aren’t required to hand out business cards.

No one demands that other law enforcement officers expose their identities during dangerous operations. The principle is universally understood: protecting officer identity protects officer safety.

But ICE is different. Because ICE enforces immigration law. And Democrats want immigration law unenforced.

Unmasking agents isn’t about transparency. It’s about intimidation. Make the job so dangerous that nobody wants to do it. Make the personal cost so high that agents resign rather than risk their families.

Defund ICE failed. So they’re trying to destroy it from within — one doxxed agent at a time.

Body Cameras Are Already Funded

Here’s a detail that exposes the bad faith.

The House already appropriated funding for body cameras on ICE and Border Patrol agents. DHS announced deployment of body cameras in Minneapolis specifically.

Democrats got the transparency mechanism they claimed to want. Cameras recording every interaction. Footage available for review.

But cameras weren’t enough. They moved to unmasking and personal identification.

Because this was never about accountability. Body cameras provide accountability. Unmasking provides targets.

Johnson’s Tight Margin

Bream pressed Johnson on the political reality.

“You could do it with a majority vote, but you got a really tight margin there, and some of your members on the Republican side are saying, we don’t want to vote for this.”

The Republican House majority is razor-thin. A handful of defections kills any bill.

Democrats know this. Their strategy isn’t to win votes — it’s to create enough chaos that moderate Republicans break ranks and accept concessions that weaken enforcement.

Johnson’s job is holding the line. So far, he’s doing it.

“Remember, these bills have already been passed. We are gonna do it again. It’s a formality at this point.”

What Democrats Actually Want

Strip away the rhetoric about “accountability” and “transparency.”

Democrats want ICE officers identifiable so activists can target them.

Democrats want enforcement so dangerous that agents quit.

Democrats want the public so horrified by confrontation footage that they demand operations stop.

Democrats want a de facto end to immigration enforcement achieved not through legislation — which they can’t pass — but through intimidation, obstruction, and the physical endangerment of federal officers.

The mask demand isn’t a policy position. It’s a weapon.

Two Weeks to Resolve

Johnson said the Homeland Security bill will be separated and negotiated over two weeks.

“I’ve got to get everybody in a room and work this out. I think we can.”

The question is what concessions Democrats will extract — and whether Republicans will hold firm on agent safety.

Any deal that unmasks agents or requires personal identification is a deal that gets people killed. There’s no middle ground on that point.

Body cameras? Already funded. Oversight mechanisms? Negotiable. But handing agent identities to people making death threats is not a compromise. It’s a capitulation.

Chip Roy Already Showed the Way

Rep. Chip Roy has the right approach. If Democrats want to play games with DHS funding, strip sanctuary city funding from the bill.

Make them choose: unmask ICE agents or lose federal money for every city that obstructs federal law.

That’s leverage. That’s negotiation. That’s how you deal with people who are bargaining in bad faith.

Johnson should take Roy’s advice. Stop negotiating on Democratic terms. Set your own.

ICE Agents Deserve Better Than Being Used as Pawns

Federal agents are risking their lives every day in cities where elected officials have painted targets on their backs.

They’re conducting arrests while crowds film and scream. They’re executing warrants while governors call them Nazis. They’re doing their jobs while 8,000% more people threaten to kill them.

And Democrats want to take away their masks.

These are public servants with families. Children who go to school. Spouses who go to work. Parents who worry every time their phone rings.

Unmasking them isn’t transparency. It’s cruelty dressed up as policy.

Fund DHS. Keep the masks. Deploy the body cameras. And tell Democrats that their demand to endanger federal officers is not just rejected — it’s beneath contempt.