A federal government shutdown was looming larger Monday as Senate Democrats vowed to block a sprawling spending package that includes new funding for President Trump’s controversial immigration crackdown.
Democratic senators say they will not allow passage of one of six funding bills that bankrolls the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol agents, without significant concessions about the crackdown from the White House.
“Senate Democrats are united in rejecting this DHS spending bill,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York), the minority leader, tweeted.
Schumer insisted the White House and congressional Republicans negotiate major reforms to the mass deportation campaign, including demands that agents stop wearing face masks, respect peaceful protests and allow independent investigations of the recent killings of two U.S. citizens who were shot and killed by agents in Minneapolis.
“We should not be passing any money to DHS harassment and execution of American citizens by ICE,” Rep. Greg Meeks (D-Queens) said Monday. “We should not stand for it.”
Moderate Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-Long Island) took the extraordinary step of apologizing for his vote in favor of the DHS spending bill just last Thursday, saying he “failed.”
“I have long been critical of the unlawful behavior of ICE and I must do a better job of demonstrating that,” Suozzi said Monday in a statement.
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-Long Island), another moderate, has so far not walked back her own vote to fund DHS, although she did call for the impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem after the killing of protester Alex Pretti on Saturday.
Schumer called for Republicans to allow passage of other bills funding the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, State, Transportation, while setting aside the DHS bill for further negotiations. Such a deal would likely avert a shutdown as many Democrats are ready to support the other bills.
GOP leaders so far are refusing to allow separate consideration of the DHS bill that Democrats object to.
The spending bills are required to keep the government open past Jan. 31.
The House narrowly passed the entire spending package, including the DHS spending bill, last week along a mostly party line vote. Just seven Democrats, including Suozzi and Gillen, joined Republicans.
Republicans need 60 votes to pass them in the Senate, which would require support from at least seven Democrats.
Several moderate Democrats broke ranks with their colleagues to pass a stopgap spending bill and end a government shutdown late last year. Most Capitol Hill insiders thought they would take a similar stance now.
But the escalating immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, especially the killing of protester Alex Pretti over the weekend, has turned the political tide.
A string of moderate Democrats have said they can no longer support bankrolling DHS without significant concessions, even if it means risking a shutdown.
The only Democratic senator who seems likely to support the bill is maverick moderate Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), who has backed several Trump policies since the president returned to the White House last year.
