Washington– Senate leaders are seeking to salvage the bipartisan spending deal and avoid a partial government shutdown at midnight Friday, as Democrats demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.
Democrats struck a rare deal with President Donald Trump on Thursday to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broad government spending bill and fund it for two weeks while Congress debates restrictions on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The deal came through as well Angry Democrats king He pledged to vote against the entire spending bill It caused a shutdown in the aftermath Two demonstrators were killed At the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.
“Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the government funded through September,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening, while extending existing Homeland Security funding. He encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much-needed bipartisan yes vote.”
Trump had said earlier in the day, “We don’t want a shutdown.”
However, passage of the agreement was delayed late Thursday as Senate leaders were still working to gain enough support for the package.
As he left the Capitol just before midnight Thursday after hours of negotiations, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there were “obstacles on both sides” as he and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer tried to work out any objections that might delay passage of the law past Friday’s deadline.
“I hope people have the spirit to try to get this done tomorrow,” Thune said as the Senate was scheduled to reconvene on Friday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said late Thursday that he was one of the senators objecting. He said ICE agents are being treated unfairly, and he opposed House language that struck down a new law that gave senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data was accessed without their knowledge.
The unusual bipartisan talks between Trump and Schumer, his frequent opponent, came after the shooting death of a 37-year-old. Alex Pretty in Minnesota over the weekend and calls from senators from both parties for a full investigation. Schumer called it a “moment of truth.”
“What ICE is doing, outside the law, is state-sanctioned bullying and it must stop,” Schumer said Thursday. “Congress has the authority — and the moral obligation — to act.”
The standoff threatened to plunge the country into another lockdown, just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill due to the expiration of federal health care subsidies. This dispute led to a 43-day government shutdown as Republicans refused to negotiate.
That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke off to reach an agreement with Republicans, but Democrats are more united this time after the deadly shooting. Pretty and Rene is good by Federal agents.
Republicans were more willing to reach a deal as well, with many saying they were open to new restrictions after the two deadly shootings.
Democrats have made several demands, asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including demanding stricter rules on arrest warrants.
They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they break the rules. Agents should be required to remove masks, turn on cameras and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies, Schumer said.
Earlier Thursday, Tom Homan, the president’s border official, said during a news conference in Minneapolis that federal immigration officials are developing a plan to reduce the number of agents in Minnesota, but that will depend on cooperation from state authorities.
If the deal goes ahead, negotiations down the road to reaching a final agreement on the Homeland Security Bill are likely to be difficult.
Democrats want to end Trump’s aggressive immigration campaign. “If the Trump administration resists reforms, we will close the agency,” Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal said.
But Republicans are unlikely to agree to all of Democrats’ demands.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he opposes requiring immigration enforcement officers to show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions he said “tarnish” the agency’s reputation.
“You know, there’s a lot of bad people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know your kids or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home,” Tillis said.
Graham said some of the Democratic proposals “make sense,” such as improved training and body cameras. However, he said he was alerting his Senate colleagues that if Democrats tried to make changes to the funding bill, he would insist on new language barring local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“I believe the best legislative solution for our country is to adopt some of these reforms at ICE and Border Patrol,” Graham posted on X. But he said the bill should also end so-called “sanctuary city” policies.
Across the Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Los Angeles, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he was “strongly opposed” to dismantling the funding package, but “if it’s dismantled, we’re going to have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.”
On Thursday evening, at the Kennedy Center premiere of a film about First Lady Melania Trump, Johnson said he may have some “difficult decisions” to make about when, if they pass, the House will return to Washington to approve bills the Senate has taken up.
“We’ll see what they do,” Johnson said.
House Republicans said they did not want any changes to the bill It passed last week. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the Republican president and ICE.
“The package will not make it back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” they wrote.
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Seung-Min Kim and Michelle L. contributed to this report. Price, and Darlene Superville.