The possibility of partial government shutdown is growing after 2nd person killed in Minnesota
For all the latest developments in Congress, follow WTOP Capitol Hill correspondent Mitchell Miller at Today on the Hill.
The chances of a partial government shutdown this week have ratcheted up.
Congressional Democrats are vowing not to approve funding for the Department of Homeland Security after federal agents fatally shot 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Saturday.
The shooting of another U.S. citizen by agents conducting immigration enforcement has led to a groundswell of U.S. Senate Democrats who say DHS funding should not go forward without reforms involving U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
President Donald Trump’s administration has deployed those two agencies to major cities across the country to conduct immigration enforcement operations.
Pretti, an American citizen and a Veterans Affairs employee, was shot by a Border Patrol agent, an action widely condemned by Democrats and questioned by some Republicans in Congress.
The Senate only has until 12 a.m. Friday to approve a package of six appropriations bills, which currently includes DHS funding. The window for approving the bills became tighter due to the winter storm, delaying legislative action until Tuesday evening.
The first vote on the appropriations bills isn’t expected until Thursday.
Schumer calls for overhaul of ICE and CBP
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic leaders previously indicated the Senate was on track to wrap up work on the appropriations bills this week to avert a government showdown.
But that abruptly changed after the widely publicized shooting of Pretti and the Trump administration’s initial suggestion that Pretti, a nurse with no criminal record, was a “domestic terrorist” who sought to murder federal agents.
“Senate Democrats will not allow the current DHS funding bill to move forward,” Schumer said in a statement that referred to the Pretti shooting, as well as an earlier shooting involving an ICE agent that claimed the life of Renee Good.
He said their deaths “must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public.”
Schumer has urged GOP lawmakers to pass the five other bills while the DHS bill is rewritten.
Democrats are demanding a wide range of reforms for immigration enforcement agents, including additional training, a requirement to not wear masks and more clearly identify themselves, and the use of body cameras.
White House opposes new bill for DHS
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday the Trump administration does not support crafting a new DHS bill and believes lawmakers should stick with the current package. She also said it’s important to get funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved, in the wake of the nationwide winter storm.
“We absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse and we want the Senate to move forward with passing the bipartisan appropriations package that was negotiated on a bipartisan basis,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt also sought to counter arguments that ICE is only creating more problems by coming to cities and carrying out immigration enforcement.
She cited the “great level of cooperation” the White House and federal authorities have with D.C. and Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Leavitt said thousands of people in the country illegally who were in the District were “removed.” She cited that as a reason that crime has dropped in D.C., though the mayor and others have repeatedly pointed out that crime was falling before the federal law enforcement surge and before the arrival of National Guard personnel in the nation’s capital.