CASH FREEZE

Trump Facing Shutdown Threat Over ICE Shooting Backlash

The Senate appears unlikely to have the votes to pass a government funding bill by the end of the week.

President Donald Trump is facing the looming threat of a government shutdown at the end of the week amid outrage over the ICE killing in Minneapolis.

A partial government shutdown would be the second one to hit the Trump administration in less than six months after the longest government shutdown in U.S. history last fall.

The so-called minibus funding package needs to pass in the Senate before funding runs out at the end of the week, but Democrats have balked at the inclusion of money for DHS after the shooting of 37-year-old VA nurse Alex Pretti.

Even some Republicans have shown increasing concerns over ICE’s conduct in Minneapolis after the killing on Saturday.

The Senate needs 60 votes to pass the deal, which already passed the House before they went on recess this week.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday called on GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune to quickly advance some of the funding package by the January 30 deadline, but not the sixth bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

“The responsibility to prevent a partial government shutdown is on Leader Thune and Senate Republicans. If Leader Thune puts those five bills on the floor this week, we can pass them right away,” Schumer said. “If not, Republicans will again be responsible for another government shutdown.”

Dozens of Senate Democrats fired off statements and posts throughout the weekend, saying they could not vote for the funding package if it included money for DHS without further restrictions on ICE, as it passed in the House.

Republicans need seven Democrats to vote with them to pass the budget legislation.

The only Democratic senator who appeared willing to vote for the package as it stands was Senator John Fetterman, but he even indicated he would prefer it exclude the ICE funding.

“I want a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill and support stripping it from the minibus,” Fetterman said in a statement. “It is unlikely that will happen and our country will suffer another shutdown.”

Even if the Senate removed DHS funding from the bill, it would not cut the more than $170 billion in DHS funding passed in Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act last year.

At the same time, if Senate Republicans were willing to renegotiate on DHS, it would then have to go back to the House for final passage, and the House is not scheduled to be in this week as the clock ticks down on the funding deadline.

But a growing number of Republican lawmakers have voiced concerns over ICE since Pretti was killed.

Utah Senator John Curtis became one of the latest GOP senators to call for an investigation on Monday.

“We must have a transparent, independent investigation into the Minnesota shooting, and those responsible—no matter their title—must be held accountable," he wrote on X. “Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission.”

He joins other Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Bill Cassidy, David McCormick, Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, who have all called for investigations.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul also called for the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to testify before Congress, giving lawmakers an opportunity to grill them next month about the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and killing of not just Pretti but also Renee Good.

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The responses by lawmakers to the shooting of Pretti multiple times on a Minneapolis street on Saturday suggest that lawmakers and even the Trump administration know the public is increasingly turning against ICE and Trump’s immigration crackdown.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rushed to distance Trump from the allegations by the White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem that Pretti was a domestic terrorist.

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Instead, Leavitt said the president wants to see the investigation play out while border czar Tom Homan is being rushed to Minneapolis amid the fallout.

However, the White House rejected splitting DHS money from the other funding bills in an effort to get legislation passed before the looming deadline.

“At this point, the White House supports the bipartisan work that was done to advance the bipartisan appropriations package, and we want to see that passed,” Leavitt said.

Back in the House, at least one Democrat who voted for the DHS funding last Thursday is already showing remorse for having done so after the killing.

Seven House Democrats joined Republicans to vote for the package that included ICE funding before skipping town.

One of them, Rep. Tom Suozzi, who represents a swing district on Long Island, put out a strong statement on Monday in which he said he “failed” by voting for it.

“I failed to view the D.H.S. funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and immoral conduct of ICE in Minneapolis,” he wrote. “I hear the anger from many of my constituents, and I take responsibility for that.”

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Sarah Ewall-WicePolitical Reporter

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