The controversy surrounding the two fatal shootings of two anti-ICE protestors in Minneapolis by agents of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) impacted decisions made by Congress surrounding funding for major departments, resulting in one brief, partial government shutdown and teeing up the potential for another.
Amidst existing backlash to President Donald Trump’s expansive immigration crackdown, the Jan. 7 shooting of Renée Good resulted in Republicans placating Democratic concerns over the impropriety of ICE agents amid continued funding negotiations for critical government departments including the Departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Education, Labor, Treasury, Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development, but the most contentious funding was for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE and CBP.
Rather than risk another government shutdown just months after a record-breaking 43-day shutdown in October, House Republicans watered down additional funding for ICE in the hopes of getting at least some Democratic support for the funding bill. The overwhelming majority of House Democrats voted against the bill, but seven primarily moderate members of the party occupying swing districts joined with Republicans giving the bill a slim 220 majority vote in favor on Jan. 22.
Three days later, as the Senate was due to deliberate on the funding, CBP agents shot and killed protester Alex Pretti, igniting further condemnation against the immigration crackdown, the agencies involved and by proxy the bill that contained few conditions on DHS funding.
The House backed bill ultimately failed a procedural vote on Jan. 29 after all Democratic Senators, who opposed the bill due to the DHS funding, were joined by several Republican Senators who were variously unhappy with the watered-down DHS funding or wanted to write large spending cuts.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) also changed his vote to nay to bring up the bill for reconsideration. One surprise vote against the bill was Pennsylvania’s Democratic Sen. John Fetterman who has vocally opposed allowing government shutdowns to occur, but also criticized the actions of ICE.
Republicans the next day reached a deal with Democrats to amend the funding bill by stripping out most of the DHS funding which in addition to ICE includes important agencies such as FEMA and TSA. All other agencies not underneath DHS would receive their full years’ worth of funding. The DHS funds left in the bill would last until Feb. 13 and come without any stipulations on department policy. This revision was passed bipartisanly with 71 senators voting in favor.
However, the deal came too late to avert a partial government shutdown which started at midnight on Jan. 31, affecting the agencies and departments included in the bill, though not entirely. Some, including ICE, had funding via previously enacted legislation.
The House now had to pass the Senate’s version of the bill where it still faced opposition from most Democrats and new opposition from Republicans who rejected the removal of greater DHS funding and were now advocating for the addition of the SAVE Act, a perennial Republican-supported measure to require further proof of citizenship to register to vote, to the funding bill.
Ultimately, 21 Democrats, including some of the moderates who supported the original House bill and others who were willing to accept the Senate-negotiated deal to end the shutdown, supported the bill, and 21 Republicans opposed the bill. The final vote was a narrow 217-214 in favor of ending the shutdown. Trump signed the funding bill into law on Feb. 3, concluding the shutdown after three days.
Up next for Congress to draft and consider will be a full funding bill for DHS. Republicans will be looking to continue expansive immigration operations, while Democrats will seek guardrails and accountability for immigration agents’ actions.
