WASHINGTON – As the clock ticked towards a potential government shutdown on Friday at midnight, Senate leaders were engaged in a last-minute scramble to preserve a bipartisan spending agreement. The sticking point? New demands from Democrats for restrictions on federal immigration raids across the nation.
In a rare political maneuver, Democrats reached a compromise with President Donald Trump on Thursday. The agreement aimed to decouple funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broader government spending package, proposing a two-week extension. This temporary measure was intended to provide Congress with time to deliberate on proposed limitations for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. This development unfolded amid heightened tensions following the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, which had Democrats threatening to block the entire spending bill, risking a shutdown.
In an effort to rally support, President Trump took to social media Thursday evening, emphasizing the cooperative effort between Republicans and Democrats. “Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September,” he stated, urging both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”
Earlier that day, Trump had expressed his desire to avoid a shutdown, stating, “we don’t want a shutdown.”
Despite these efforts, the passage of the agreement faced delays late Thursday. Senate leaders were still striving to secure sufficient backing for the proposal.
After hours of intense negotiations, Senate Majority Leader John Thune was seen leaving the Capitol just before midnight Thursday. He acknowledged that there were “snags on both sides” as he, along with Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, worked to resolve any lingering objections that could obstruct the passage of the agreement beyond the Friday deadline.
“Hopefully people will be of the spirit to try and 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 were being treated unfairly and he opposed House language repealing a new law that gives senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge.
Rare bipartisan talks
The unusual bipartisan talks between Trump and Schumer, his frequent adversary, came after the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in Minnesota over the weekend and calls by senators in both parties for a full investigation. Schumer called it “a moment of truth.”
“What ICE is doing, outside the law, is state-sanctioned thuggery and it must stop,” Schumer said Thursday. “Congress has the authority — and the moral obligation — to act.”
The standoff has threatened to plunge the country into another shutdown, just two months after Democrats blocked a spending bill over expiring federal health care subsidies. That dispute 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 Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents.
Republicans were more willing to make a deal, as well, as several of them said they were open to new restrictions after the two fatal shootings.
Democrats lay out demands
Democrats have laid out several demands, 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.
They 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.
Earlier on Thursday, Tom Homan, the president’s border czar, stated during a press conference in Minneapolis that federal immigration officials are developing a plan to reduce the number of agents in Minnesota, but this would depend on cooperation from state authorities.
Still far apart on policy
If the deal moves forward, negotiations down the road on a final agreement on the Homeland Security bill are likely to be difficult.
Democrats want Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown to end. “If the Trump administration resists reforms, we shut down the agency,” said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
But Republicans are unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats’ demands.
North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he is opposed to requiring 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.
Graham said some of the Democratic proposals “make sense,” such as better training and body cameras. Still, he said he was putting his Senate colleagues “on notice” that if Democrats try to make changes to the funding bill, he would insist on new language preventing local governments from resisting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
“I think the best legislative solution for our country would be to adopt some of these reforms to ICE and Border Patrol,” Graham posted on X. But he said that the bill should also end so-called “sanctuary city” policies.
Uncertainty in the House
Across the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told The Associated Press on Thursday that he had been “vehemently opposed” to breaking up the funding package, but “if it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.”
On Thursday evening, at a premiere of a movie about first lady Melania Trump at the Kennedy Center, Johnson said he might have some “tough decisions” to make about when to bring the House back to Washington to approve the bills separated by the Senate, if they pass.
“We’ll see what they do,” Johnson said.
House Republicans have said they do not want any changes to the bill they 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 come 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, Michelle L. Price and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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