With a partial government shutdown looking inevitable following the deadly shooting by federal agents in Minnesota, the question now is how many of the government’s agencies will go unfunded at the end starting Saturday.
The killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis over the weekend has drawn a sharp rebuke from Democrats and some Republicans. In response, Democrats are leveraging their power of the purse to oppose any measure funding the Homeland Security Department without reforms that would rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Senate Democrats released a list of possible ICE reforms Wednesday afternoon that would put guardrails on President Trump’s aggressive immigration approach.
Democrats are also asking for Senate Republicans to separate DHS funding from the rest of a spending package that would fund various other agencies, such as the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Defense, and Housing and Urban Development.
But the move to separate the funding bills and change the package could procedurally burn up more time on the floor and send the altered vehicle back to the House, which is out this week—making either a partial DHS shutdown or a broader government shutdown all but certain, ahead of a critical funding deadline that expires at midnight Friday.
“Democrats are ready to avert a shutdown,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “We have five bills we all agree on. About 95 percent of the remaining budget, it is ready to go. ... But when it comes to DHS, we cannot ignore what happened on Saturday—especially after what we have seen over the last 12 months. We have to split this bill off and grapple with the brutal reality that ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] are out of control and endangering American citizens.”
The issue of immigration—and the killings of Pretti and Renée Good in Minneapolis–have ignited pushback from the Democratic base against the administration’s crackdown on immigration. But the threat of another shutdown could prove politically painful for the party, with funding for half of the federal government’s agencies still not passed into law, and money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency has become acutely critical after this past weekend’s snowstorm.
And as the issue continues to dominate the headlines and threaten GOP chances to maintain power in the midterms, Senate Republican leadership has signaled openness to providing a stopgap funding measure for DHS as negotiations over reforms continue—even if it’s not the GOP's preference.
“I think the best path forward, as I have said, is to keep the package intact, and if there are things the Democrats want that the administration can agree with them about, then let’s do that,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.
On Wednesday, Senate Democrats laid out reforms they want in any DHS funding bill, including ending roving patrols and enacting a “uniform code of conduct and accountability” that’s applied to federal agents as well as state and local law enforcement. They also want to ban masks for federal agents while requiring officers to carry body cameras and clear identification.
“These are common-sense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “If Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order—plain and simple.”
Funding for ICE has already been allocated through the One Big Beautiful Bill that passed last summer. But a halt in funding for DHS would put a pause on money for critical agencies it supports such as FEMA and the Coast Guard—a prospect that has Democrats uneasy about another shutdown, especially with the midterm elections on the horizon.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a moderate Democratic appropriator who voted to reopen the government last year, wouldn't answer directly if she would vote to shut the government down but said, “I think what we need are reforms with ICE.”
Independent Sen. Angus King, who also voted to reopen the government in November, told reporters he would accept a stopgap funding measure for DHS to avert a partial shutdown and give lawmakers more time to put restrictions on ICE agents.
Some Republican appropriators are signaling willingness to play ball with Democrats’ funding asks. Sens. John Kennedy and Lisa Murkowski, who both sit on the Appropriations Committee, told reporters they expect the DHS section to be pulled out of the larger funding package, and signaled they would be OK with it. Kennedy called the scenario “inevitable.”
But what Republicans will ultimately do—whether or not they’ll stand to negotiate with Democrats on complicated and politically tricky immigration-policy reforms—will depend on the president. According to reporting from CNN, Trump administration officials reached out to several rank-and-file Democratic senators asking them to come to the White House for a meeting, but Democrats declined.
“We have to pass a bill here,” Murray said. “[Thune] is the majority leader.”
But as public disapproval increases over the public killings of Minneapolis residents, Republicans risk losing on the issue of immigration—often a political strength for the GOP—if they don’t agree to rein in ICE enforcement.
“It is regrettable that the issue that Republicans always lead on, we're losing on,” said GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, who has called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to resign. “We've forgotten what a tremendous job Trump has done with border enforcement because of the missteps in Minnesota. … Come on, let’s get some adults over there.”
