WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats say they will block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies Thursday, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald Trump's surge of immigration enforcement.
There were some signs of possible progress ahead of a Thursday morning test vote as the White House has appeared open to trying to strike a deal with Democrats to avert a shutdown. The two sides were discussing a possible agreement to separate Homeland Security funding from the rest of the legislation and fund it for a short time, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who insisted on anonymity to speak about the private talks.
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But as the voting began, it was still unclear what would happen.
“This is a moment of truth,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said.
As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, irate Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest. If those are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown at midnight on Friday.
Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won't provide needed votes until U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.”
“The American people support law enforcement. They support border security. They do not support ICE terrorizing our streets and killing American citizens,” Schumer said.
Schumer has pushed Republicans and the White House to strip the Homeland Security funding from the rest of the bill, which includes money for the Defense Department and other agencies. In the deal under discussion, Homeland Security would still be funded but for a short time to allow for negotiations on the Democrats' demands. Other agencies included in the bill would be funded through the end of September.
Still, with no agreement and an uncertain path ahead, the standoff threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies, a dispute that closed the government for 43 days as Republicans refused to negotiate.
That shutdown ended when a small group of moderate Democrats broke away to strike a deal with Republicans, but Democrats are more unified this time after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., encouraged Democrats and the White House to talk and find agreement.
“We’re getting closer,” the GOP leader said on the Senate floor Thursday morning.
The president alluded to the ongoing talks with Democrats as he kicked off a meeting with his Cabinet on Thursday.“We’re working on that right now,” Trump said while declining to go into specifics. He added: “We don’t want a shutdown.”
Democrats lay out their demands
There’s a lot of “unanimity and shared purpose” within the Democratic caucus, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith said after a lunch meeting Wednesday.
“Boil it all down, what we are talking about is that these lawless ICE agents should be following the same rules that your local police department does," Smith said. "There has to be accountability.”
Earlier Thursday, Tom Homan, the president's border czar, said during a press conference in Minneapolis that federal immigration officials are working on a plan to begin drawing down the number of agents in Minnesota but that it would depend on cooperation from state authorities.
It's unclear how far those assurances will go in satisfying Democrats. During the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, Schumer said Democrats are asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.
Democrats also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.
The Democratic caucus is united in those “common sense reforms” and the burden is on Republicans to accept them, Schumer said, as he has pushed for the Homeland Security spending to be separated out to avoid a broader shutdown.
Many obstacles to a deal
As the two sides negotiated, it was unclear whether they could agree on anything that would satisfy Democrats who want Trump's aggressive crackdown to end.
The House passed the six remaining funding bills last week and sent them to the Senate as a package, making it more difficult to strip out the Homeland Security portion as Democrats have demanded. Republicans could either break the package apart with the consent of all 100 senators or through a series of votes that would extend past the Friday deadline.
And as the White House and Democrats worked to find compromise, it was unclear whether all Democrats would agree to a temporary extension of the funding. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, has said that Congress should not send “another penny" to ICE until Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is fired.
Across the Capitol, House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they have passed. 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 come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the letter.
Just ahead of the Senate vote, Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, called for Democrats to vote for the bill so they could negotiate the changes.
“If we do not get on the package we cannot change the package,” Collins said. “This morning's vote is about taking the first step, not the final step.”
Still far apart on policy
Several Republican senators have said they would be fine with Democrats’ request to separate the Homeland Security funds for further debate and pass the other bills in the package. But it might be more difficult for Democrats to find broad GOP support for their demands on ICE.
Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he’s OK with separating the bills but is opposed to the Democrats’ proposal to require the immigration enforcement officers to show their faces, even as he blamed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for decisions that he said are “tarnishing” the agency’s reputation.
“You know, there’s a lot of vicious people out there, and they’ll take a picture of your face, and the next thing you know, your children or your wife or your husband are being threatened at home," Tillis said. "And that’s just the reality of the world that we’re in.”
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham posted on X that he was putting his Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes, he would insist on new language preventing local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“Therefore I want to put my Senate colleagues on notice that I would insist this new DHS package include ending sanctuary city policies forever,” Graham wrote.
Democrats say they won’t back down.
“It is truly a moral moment,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I think we need to take a stand.”
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Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.