The federal government is edging closer to a partial government shutdown this weekend as Democrats and Republicans continue to differ on Department of Homeland Security funding and how best to address concerns about the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement tactics following weeks of unrest and a pair of high-profile deadly shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday laid out three major reforms that Democrats are demanding as they look to restrain Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and avoid a partial government shutdown by passing a package of bills to fund the government through September. “After talking with my caucus, Senate Democrats are united on a set of common-sense and necessary policy goals that we need to rein in ICE and the violence,” Schumer said.
* First, Democrats want an end to roving patrols by immigration officers. “We need to tighten the rules governing the use of warrants and require ICE's coordination with state and local law enforcement,” Schumer said.
* Second, Democrats are seeking to enforce accountability by establishing a uniform code of conduct for federal agents. “Federal agents should be held to the same use-of-force policies as apply to state and local law enforcement and be held accountable when they violate these rules.” Schumer added that independent investigations are needed to help enforce those policies.
* Third, Schumer said, “we want masks off, body cameras on” for federal agents. He said law enforcement officers should also have to carry proper identification.
“These are commonsense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Schumer said. “If Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order, plain and simple. They are choosing to protect ICE from accountability over American lives.”
Schumer again called on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to separate out the Homeland Security funding bill from five other bills in the $1.3 trillion spending package approved by the House last week. Democrats support the five other bills, which include funding for the Pentagon and the Departments of State, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and other related agencies. All six bills were negotiated on a bipartisan basis, but Democratic concerns over funding DHS reached a breaking point after federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last Saturday.
Breaking up the bill would be complicated, risky: Thune told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he was waiting for Democrats to specify their demands, but he warned that reopening the six-bill package sent over by the House and forcing lawmakers in the other chamber to vote on the spending measures again would be problematic.
“It’s really important, if possible, to do it here, not to have to send it back to the House of Representatives, where the future of an appropriations package I think would be somewhat uncertain,” he said.
The House is out this week, and Republicans have taken no steps to have lawmakers return early from their recess. But House conservatives have made clear they oppose amending the DHS bill and would seek their own demands if the spending package comes back to them. “I have my own list if DHS is opened back up. Beginning with no sanctuary city funding,” Rep. Chip Roy, a House Freedom Caucus member, wrote in a post on X.
Ripping apart the House-passed package would likely also involve some procedural complications in the Senate, where some Republicans are sure to oppose stripping out the DHS funding bill.
Thune added that a partial shutdown would be harmful and that shutting down the Department of Homeland Security would affect important agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency just as it is responding to weather-related disasters affecting much of the country. He noted that a partial shutdown wouldn’t impede ICE, which received a massive funding infusion as part of last year’s Republican reconciliation bill. And he pointed out that the DHS funding bill now before the Senate would actually provide less money for ICE and some other areas of Democratic concern than current spending levels do.
Thune suggested that Democrats should be talking to the White House and said the Trump administration is willing to negotiate over how to proceed. But Schumer dismissed administration offers so far. “The White House has had no specific good, concrete ideas,” the Democratic leader told reporters.
Democrats have also insisted that any fixes should be passed into law by Congress, saying they simply can’t trust administration promises.
The bottom line: It’s not clear whether the two sides can agree on a path forward ahead of the Friday night funding deadline. A test vote on the six-bill funding package is set for Thursday.