The government shutdown is over. Today the House passed the Senate funding bill and sent it to Donald Trump, who signed it into law. Which means all parts of the federal government are now open, and a full-year budget is in place for everything except the Department of Homeland Security (which only has a two-week extension). So the stage is set for the negotiations to begin over the reforms Democrats want to impose on ICE and the Border Patrol and all other federal immigration enforcement agents.

Democrats were smart to only allow a two-week extension of the D.H.S. budget. Republicans had wanted four or even six weeks, but that would have meant a big loss of political momentum and intensity. Two weeks maintains both, and keeps the pressure on to get something done right away. A bill will likely have to be written by early next week in order to pass through both houses of Congress by next Friday (the new deadline).

Democrats, of course, have the upper hand in this fight. The public is on their side in a big way, and even many Republicans have realized that arguing to continue the status quo is not a very defensible political position to take, at this point. We've all seen the abuses of ICE with our own eyes, so it's pretty obvious that changes need to be made. Tellingly, even Trump hasn't come out strongly against any of the changes Democrats have proposed -- because Trump just wants to put the whole issue behind him. This could be crucial in these negotiations, because if Trump isn't railing against the Democrats' issues on social media every night, then that should free up Republicans to vote for them.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is going to be the chief negotiator for the Democrats, and he's already laid out a list of his demands. They are all reasonable things to ask for and should be seen as unobjectionable. Democrats are not demanding that ICE be abolished, but they do want ICE agents to follow the same rules that other police forces must follow.

For starters, ICE agents and other federal officers will no longer be allowed to wear masks to conceal their identities from the public. After all, no other police force regularly allows officers to wear masks when performing their duties, so why should ICE? Masked, unidentified police are a hallmark of totalitarian states, not America. Police officers must be held accountable to the public they serve, period. ICE agents will also be required to carry identification, which (again) is just a basic accountability measure for any police force.

Body cameras will be required for ICE agents and all other federal officers, and their use needs to be mandatory, not optional. On this issue, the Democrats have already won the argument. Kristi Noem just announced that all ICE agents in Minneapolis will be provided with body cameras "effective immediately," and once funding for more of them is provided this will be the rule nationwide. So now all the Democrats have to do is codify this into law, since Noem and Trump have already backed down on it.

Federal officers have to be subject to the same "use of force" rules that all other police departments (local and state) must adhere to. Right now, as anyone who has watched any of the recent videos can see, federal officers are routinely breaking these rules -- whipping out their guns without justifiable cause, deploying tear gas at the drop of a hat, firing non-lethal (and occasionally lethal) rounds at people who pose no threat whatsoever, and plenty of other abusive tactics that would get a local or state cop hauled up on charges and/or fired. This must stop.

These rules must be enforced, too. ICE and other federal officers must be subject to independent investigations if they breach the use-of-force rules in any way. The key word in that is independent -- meaning they won't be able to police themselves anymore by opening sham "investigations" that are designed to put the stamp of approval on lawless tactics.

Roving patrols by ICE agents must end, too. Flooding an American city with thousands of ICE agents means a whole lot of them essentially have nothing important to do -- so they head out looking for trouble, sweeping up as many people as they can to boost their arrest quotas. This is out of control and needs to stop. Roving bands of agents dressed for a battlefield and carrying weapons of war demanding of anyone they see to "show me your papers" is un-American, period.

Instead, warrants that have been signed by a judge will be required for arrests and searches. As the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mandates:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

It is shocking that Democrats even need to codify this further for a federal agency (since it is right there in the Bill of Rights, plain as day), but as we've all seen, ICE and other agencies have been completely ignoring this as they unconstitutionally round up anyone they feel like.

Those are the Democratic demands. None of them is unreasonable in any way. None will "abolish ICE." Instead they will rein in the unconstitutional abuses that have been happening on American streets on a daily basis.

Some Democrats (mostly in the House) are pushing for stricter reforms. They point out that Schumer's list isn't going to end all the abuses ICE and others have been regularly getting away with. And this negotiation is going to be the last chance Democrats get to make such demands for at least the rest of this year. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is calling for further action, but Schumer is really the one making these decisions, so it is doubtful whether any further reforms will be included in the eventual bill.

Some Republicans (again, mostly in the House) are already balking at Schumer's list of reforms. In particular, Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing back against the "no masks" rule and the requirement for judicial warrants. Others in his caucus are trying to attach other (mostly unrelated) issues to the bill as well, since it will be the last "must-pass" bill Congress has to deal with for a long time. But Johnson's not the person negotiating all of this with Schumer, so it's doubtful whether he's going to have any leverage at all.

What will almost certainly happen is that Schumer and the White House agree to legislative language codifying all of Schumer's demands, and then Trump will get behind it and pressure Senate Republicans to vote for it. Eight GOP senators have already broken ranks on the issue (on a previous vote), but the Democrats will need 13 of them to reach the 60-vote threshold. But if Trump does put his seal of approval on a bill, this shouldn't be too hard to do.

After the Senate passes the bill, it will be sent over to the House (preferably at the last minute). Johnson and all the other GOP House members will then face the choice of passing the bill or forcing another government shutdown -- over a bill that Trump supports. Johnson may gum up the works for a while, but in the end he will likely have to accept whatever the Senate has already passed without making any changes.

That's if everything goes well, of course. But at this point the chances of success have to be seen as being pretty high. Democrats have public opinion on their side in a big way, they have the leverage of another government shutdown, and Donald Trump seems at least halfway on their side already. If Schumer and Trump come to an agreement, the rest of the Republicans will doubtlessly fall into line. Democrats will have forced major changes and reforms to an out-of-control federal government, even though they are in the minority in both houses of Congress. That is a rarity. Opportunities for a minority party to wield such leverage don't happen often and usually fail. But this time Democrats could force major changes that will happen immediately.

Let the negotiations begin.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant