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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., waits to speak to reporters following a closed-door meeting with fellow Democrats on Wednesday.
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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
With the government on the brink of a partial shutdown, the Senate is scrambling to keep funding flowing and address bipartisan distress over President Trump’s immigration enforcement tactics.
But even with an agreement to fund the government, a short-term partial shutdown appears all but inevitable. The Senate still needs to vote on a plan announced by Senate Democrats, and then the House, which is in recess until Monday, needs to sign off, too.
The agreement reached Thursday night and endorsed by President Trump will fund much of the government through the end of September and temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks while lawmakers negotiate provisions to rein in federal immigration agents.
Just a week ago, Congress was on track to approve nearly $1.3 trillion in spending for defense, health, transportation, housing and more before government funding expires Friday at midnight.
But the second deadly shooting of a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis by federal immigration officers on Saturday upended those plans, as Democrats pledged to withhold support for the funding package without policy changes on immigration enforcement.
And unlike the shutdown standoff last fall over expiring health insurance subsidies, more Republicans acknowledged that what was unfolding in Minneapolis was an inflection point that could not be ignored.
Democrats are demanding changes to how immigration officers carry out arrests and incidents are investigated, as well as mandating the use of body cameras and other reforms.
Some of the recommendations could attract Republican support. But there is still an arduous road ahead for any of them becoming law.
Why some Republicans are alarmed
In an era when congressional Republicans rarely criticize the Trump Administration, the killing of 37- year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis sparked unease from unexpected corners of the caucus.
“Initial rushes to judgment did not meet the standard that Americans should expect from their government officials,” Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., wrote on social media, referring to remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others who had swiftly labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist.”
“Enforcing our immigration laws makes our streets safer. It also protects our national security,” Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., wrote in a statement the day after the shooting. “But we must also maintain our core values as a nation, including the right to protest and assemble.”
Several Republicans called for hearings and an independent investigation; DHS leaders are expected to testify in back-to-back oversight hearings next month and Noem is now due to testify in March. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., more frequent Trump critics, have called for her resignation.
Tillis told reporters that the images coming out of Minneapolis were souring the public on the Trump administration’s handling of immigration more broadly.
“It is regrettable that the issue that Republicans always lead on, we’re losing on,” Tillis told NPR.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks to reporters at the Capitol on Thursday. Tillis says the images coming out of Minneapolis have soured the public on the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
And despite initially resisting Democrats’ demands to split the homeland security funding bill from the overall spending package, key Republicans eventually softened to the idea.
“If the pathway exists that we get these five bills done and then we have time to continue to review Homeland [Security], I’m here for it,” said Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., an appropriations committee member.
But divides continue to persist within the Republican party.
“We’re not going to keep ICE from doing their job,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla. “The American people wanted the president to enforce law and order and ICE is doing their job.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., says Republicans are “not going to keep ICE from doing their job.”
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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican who sits on the homeland security committee, said he did not see a need for any further policy changes. He noted that the current DHS funding bill awaiting a vote already includes additional funding for body cameras and oversight.
“I don’t see one that’s needed above and beyond what’s already there,” Lankford said.
What Democrats want: judicial warrants, masks off and cameras on
Democrats secured a handful of wins in the current version of the spending bill, such as reducing funding for immigration enforcement and reducing capacity at detention centers. But in the wake of Pretti’s death, they say further reforms are needed.
Senate Democrats have outlined three buckets of policy changes they are pursuing.
Democrats want rules around the kinds of warrants immigration officers can use to enter homes and an end to so-called “roving patrols” when officers conduct broad searches and stops of people they suspect of being in the country illegally.
An ICE memo unveiled in a whistleblower complaint first reported by the Associated Press last week, detailed how Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were using administrative warrants as opposed to judicial warrants, which are signed by a judge.
These administrative warrants, according to the whistleblower report, are signed by immigration agents and deportation officers.
In a letter to DHS, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said these kinds of warrants are an unlawful method of entering private residences. Administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have defended the approach as lawful, saying administrative warrants are still warrants.
The broad authority DHS is using has alarmed some Republicans.
“I am not a big fan of administrative warrants. I think warrants to enter someone’s house should be Fourth Amendment warrants,” said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, had called for an end to the large-scale operation in her state, which resulted in the arrest of over 100 people in what ICE dubbed, “Operation Catch of the Day.“
“I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state,” Collins said in a statement, writing that she had spoken to Noem and the operation there was no longer ongoing.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a news conference following the death of Alex Pretti. Noem and other administration officials have faced criticism, including from some Republicans, for accusing Pretti of domestic terrorism.
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Al Drago/Getty Images
But Democrats want guardrails to prevent similar “roving” operations in other places.
Democrats want to make it easier to pursue legal action against immigration officers and “independent investigations” into ICE and other federal enforcement misconduct.
Democrats have previously raised questions about the efficacy of DHS oversight mechanisms to investigate employee misconduct and critics have pointed out that the department, which houses ICE, is investigating itself in the most recent deadly incidents.
In the aftermath of the shooting of Renee Macklin Good, the 37-year-old killed by an ICE officer earlier this month, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and ICE announced they would run parallel investigations and not conduct a joint investigation with state officials.
The move prompted backlash from local officials, like Minnesota’s Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who argue that the investigation may not be fair since agency leaders were already defending the officers’ conduct.
Democrats want to mandate that agents display clearer identification, not cover their faces and wear body cameras.
DHS leaders have defended the use of masks arguing that there is an increased threat of doxxing and physical threats to identified agents and their families.
A member of the U.S. Border Patrol confronts the driver of a vehicle that was following them on Jan. 29, in Minneapolis. Democrats want immigration officers to not cover their faces and wear body cameras, among other changes.
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Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Body camera requirements have also come into focus after the two shootings in Minneapolis. DHS has long said it does not have enough body cameras for every single agent.
To address concerns about the lack of body cameras, the current version of the DHS spending bill, which has already passed the House, includes $20 million for cameras for ICE and Customs and Border Protection. But the bill only mandates the money be spent — it does not mandate the use of the cameras.
“Funding them without wearing them means nothing,” Blumenthal told NPR.
Why Democrats feel emboldened
After a record 43-day shutdown last fall, many Democrats were weary of even a short funding lapse.
But that environment changed this week. Even five of six Democrats who broke with their party to end the last stalemate now said the risk of another shutdown was something they were willing to take on.
“ICE is out of control, Donald Trump is out of control,” said one of those Democrats, Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada. “Our Constitution, not a suggestion, our Bill of Rights, not a suggestion.”
“I think if we’re fighting for these reforms, we’re exactly where the American people want us to be,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who early on urged his colleagues to oppose homeland security funding.
Healthcare workers attend a vigil for VA nurse Alex Pretti at VA NY Harbor Healthcare System Thursday in New York City.
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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Drew Hammill, who worked for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who as the House minority leader helped direct Democrats’ strategy during the 2018-2019 shutdown over border wall funding, said the debate over ICE tactics cuts much closer to home for most Americans.
“From a debate about a distant wall to your own neighborhood, your own backyard, the safety of your community — that’s a different scenario,” Hammill said. “Voters want and expect a fight. And I think this is one of the few opportunities with a lawless president to have any impact.”
Republican Capitol Hill veteran Antonia Ferrier says her old boss, former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, used to describe shutdown standoffs as box canyons — narrow gorges with no exit on the other end. “You’re making demands and there is no way out,” Ferrier said.
But she says Democrats may feel emboldened because this moment is spurring anger and passion on both sides of the aisle that strikes at something more fundamental about the direction of the country in a way that the health subsidies debate did not.
“What I think we’re seeing right now is markedly different,” she said. “It was a very significant inflection point, and I think now there is just so much attention and outrage that many Republicans agree there has to be some kind of changes made.”
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