Shutdown looms as ICE shootings spawn partisan fight over DHS funding in US Congress

By David Morgan and Nolan D. McCaskill

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – The federal government appeared headed for a partial government shutdown this week, with Republicans and Democrats at odds over funding for President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security after the fatal shooting of a second U.S. citizen by federal immigration officers in Minnesota.

Senate Democrats said they would not provide the votes needed to pass a $64.4 billion DHS bill and called on Republicans to strip the legislation from a larger package that would also fund programs in five other areas through September 30, including defense, health, transportation, education and housing. Current funding for those programs expires after midnight on Friday.

Senate Republicans, who control the chamber by a 53-47 seat majority, showed no sign of heeding Democrats, while the White House called on lawmakers to pass the full package to avoid the shuttering of federal agencies barely three months after the longest shutdown in U.S. history ended in November.   

“Senate Democrats have made clear we are ready to quickly advance the five appropriations bills separately from the DHS funding bill,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. “If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.”

On Monday, Republicans put the full funding package on the legislative calendar for consideration later in the week, as the two sides sought to reach agreement behind closed doors. 

“The White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package, and we want to see that passed,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “We absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse.”

A Senate Democratic leadership aide said later that Republicans and the White House had reached out but did not raise any “realistic solutions.” 

The funding package, which passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last week, had appeared to be on track for passage in the Senate until Saturday, when federal immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti. Pretti is the second U.S. citizen to be fatally shot by federal immigration officers this month in Minneapolis, where Trump, a Republican, has deployed thousands of armed, masked agents for a deportation effort. 

Senate Democrats, including moderates who broke party ranks to end the shutdown last year, said they could not support further funding for DHS without reforms to better safeguard Americans. 

“I will vote against DHS’s funding until additional reforms are in place,” said Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who also called for an independent investigation. “The Senate … needs to have a real bipartisan discussion about what additional reforms we need to put in place to prevent tragedies like Minneapolis from happening across the country.”

Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat who sometimes votes with Republicans, also called for stripping the DHS bill from the larger funding package. “It is unlikely that will happen and our country will suffer another shutdown,” the Pennsylvania Democrat said in a statement. 

Senator Susan Collins, Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said more than 80% of the DHS bill’s funding was intended for non-immigration programs including emergency disaster relief, air traffic safety, cybersecurity and the U.S. Coast Guard.

In a memo to federal judges nationwide, Judge Robert Conrad, head of the judiciary’s Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, said the courts only have enough cash on hand from fees and other balances to fully sustain paid operations through February 4 if legislation funding the judicial branch does not pass the Senate before then. 

“I hope we can come together in a constructive way to get this done and to ensure that we do not lurch into a dangerous and detrimental government shutdown,” Collins, a Maine Republican, said on the Senate floor. 

(Reporting by David Morgan and Nolan D. McCaskill; additional reporting by Costas Pitas and Nate Raymond; editing by Diane Craft)