This post was originally published on this site.
After often struggling to form an effective opposition to Donald Trump, Democrats this weekend found an issue on which they could unite — threatening to shut the government over the US president’s immigration crackdown.
Senators have been loath to risk another costly government closure, fearing a backlash if thousands of federal workers were furloughed and public services ground to a halt just months after the previous shutdown.
But the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents on Saturday has changed their calculation.
Democratic lawmakers now say they will not support legislation that includes funds for the Department of Homeland Security until federal immigration agents are reined in. That leaves Congress with just days to hash out an agreement before a government funding deadline on Friday, January 30.
Pretti’s death at the hands of Border Patrol officers was the second fatal shooting by federal agents in Minneapolis this month, after poet Renée Nicole Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in her car two weeks ago.
“I’m not giving ICE or Border Patrol another dime given how these agencies are operating. Democrats are not going to fund that,” said Adam Schiff, a Democrat senator from California on Sunday.
“The government will shut down if Republicans insist that that be joined with other government funding,” he told NBC’s Meet the Press.
Earlier in the week, Patty Murray, the Democratic senator from Washington state, said a shutdown would not do anything to “restrain” ICE.
But after Pretti’s killing, Murray changed her stance.
“Federal agents cannot murder people in broad daylight and face zero consequences. I will NOT support the DHS bill as it stands,” she posted on X.
Any government funding bill needs the support of 60 senators to avert a shutdown. Republicans control the Senate, 53-47, meaning that at least seven Democratic senators would need to sign on to a Republican-supported funding plan in order for the government to remain open.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, said late on Saturday that his party had the votes to block any legislation that provides more federal money to ICE.
“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling — and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer said. “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”
On Sunday Schumer called on Senate Republicans to draft legislation to keep the government open while carving out a separate bill to rewrite funding for the DHS.
“Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill,” he said. “This is the best course of action, and the American people are on our side.”
John Thune, the Republican Senate majority leader, did not immediately respond to Schumer’s request.
Senate Democrats were due to hold a call on Sunday evening to discuss their strategy for the funding fight. Lawmakers are not expected to return to Washington until at least Tuesday, following a hazardous storm on the East Coast.
Republicans and federal authorities continue to insist that agents were acting in self-defence when they shot Pretti, despite video footage that contradicted that position.
Protests have spread across the county, with some demonstrators calling for the abolition of ICE, the agency that has been on the frontline of the crackdown.
Former Democratic president Barack Obama made a rare intervention in US politics on Sunday, calling the shooting of Alex Pretti a “wake-up call” for the nation.
“For weeks now, people across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city,” the former president and first lady Michelle Obama said in a statement.
“These unprecedented tactics . . . have now resulted in the fatal shootings of two US citizens. And yet rather than trying to impose some semblance of discipline and accountability over the agents they’ve deployed, the president and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanations for the shootings of Mr Pretti and Renée Good that aren’t informed by any serious investigation — and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence.”
The shooting could equally be seen as a watershed moment for Democrats, who have been accused of being ineffectual in the face of the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics while their voters have become more upset with the status quo.
There is evidence that Trump too is under pressure over the issue. A New York Times Siena poll this week found just 36 per cent of voters approved of how ICE was doing its job, while 63 per cent disapproved, including 70 per cent of independent voters. Almost one in five Republicans said ICE had “gone too far”.
The last government shutdown — which stretched from October 1 to November 12 of last year — was the longest in US history. It ended only when a handful of Democratic senators crossed the political aisle in a move that divided the party, with many lawmakers accusing their colleagues of surrendering to Trump and the Republicans.
But Democrats were near-unanimous in expressing outrage over events in Minneapolis on Saturday, along with their willingness to shut down the government over the issue.
Catherine Cortez Masto, Jacky Rosen, Brian Schatz — all Democrats who helped break the stalemate last November — were quick to say they would not vote in favour of a funding package that included money for the DHS. Other moderates were sharply critical of the agency even as they stopped short of saying how they intended to vote.
Angus King, an independent senator from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats and also broke the November stalemate, told CBS News on Sunday: “I hate shutdowns. I’m one of the people who helped negotiate the solution to end the last shutdown. But I can’t vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under the circumstances.” ICE has recently ramped up its deportation efforts in Maine.
Jeanne Shaheen, the New Hampshire Democrat who led negotiations to end the last shutdown, said federal officers were “out of control”.
“There is a reason why we need to raise concerns about what the Department of Homeland Security is doing and how their federal agents are operating,” she told Fox News on Sunday, without saying how she planned to vote.
With a budget of $85bn, ICE has become the best-funded US law enforcement agency, outstripping the FBI. Its funding received a boost in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill legislation last year.
“Before us right now we have a bill about funding them, giving them more money. I’m not voting for that,” said Minnesota senator and gubernatorial candidate Amy Klobuchar on Sunday.
“Law enforcement is based on trust. And we have had a total breakdown of trust.”
