Senate Democrats blocked a spending bill on Thursday that would have funded the Department of Homeland Security past a Friday night shutdown deadline without adding any new restrictions on immigration enforcement, an expected outcome after bipartisan talks on limiting President Trump’s crackdown deadlocked.
With the funding deadline less than 36 hours away, Republicans tried to advance a bill that the House approved last month to fund the department through September, which Democrats blocked two weeks ago as they insisted on new measures to rein in federal immigration agents.
As expected, the proposal, which contained modest guardrails far short of Democrats’ demands, fell short of the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. The vote was 52 to 47.
As they prepared to block the legislation, Democrats said that Thursday’s announcement by Tom Homan, the border czar, that the administration would pull immigration agents from Minnesota and end its crackdown there was not sufficient to get them to back down on their demands.
“Abuses cannot be solved merely through executive fiat alone,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader. “Without legislation, what Tom Homan says today could be reversed tomorrow on a whim from” the president.
With Democrats and Republicans still far apart on their demands and little progress to show from days of negotiations, a shutdown of the Homeland Security Department appeared all but certain. If funding lapses, Saturday morning will be the third time in five months that parts of the government have come to a halt because of a congressional standoff.
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, pushed for another stopgap bill that would keep funds flowing. Mr. Thune said on Thursday that Democrats should support interim funding since the administration had submitted a “reasonable good-faith offer” for guardrails on immigration enforcement, and he pointed to the announcement by Mr. Homan.
“Maybe there’s some more ground the White House could give on a couple of fronts,” Mr. Thune said. “I don’t know. But I think right now, at least, there ought to be an understanding that these discussions need to continue, and that a solution is at least in sight and we ought to keep the government open.”
But Democrats have signaled that they will not allow even a temporary funding measure to proceed without measures to curb the tactics of federal agents carrying out the Trump administration’s deportation campaign. Just one of them, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted with Republicans in favor of the spending measure on Thursday.
Outraged after federal immigration officers fatally shot two American citizens in Minneapolis last month, Democrats have drawn a hard line on homeland security funding and believe they have public opinion on their side. They said that the administration’s proposal fell far short of what would be required to persuade them to back even short-term funding.
“Half measures will not cut it,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “We cannot kick the can down the road.”
Less than two weeks ago, Democrats struck a deal with the White House to fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13 while they negotiated new restrictions. They submitted demands last week that included blocking immigration officers from wearing masks that hide their identities, requiring them to show visible identification and mandating that they obtain warrants from judges to make arrests in homes.
Democrats have also pushed for a stricter use-of-force policy and new training standards for agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. They also want to end roving patrols.
Republican leaders have rejected most of those proposals as overly burdensome to an immigration crackdown that they generally support. They have vociferously objected to unmasking officers, arguing that doing so would subject immigration agents to doxxing or harassment. And they have argued that any new guardrails on federal agents should also come with restrictions on so-called sanctuary cities, jurisdictions with policies that limit cooperation with immigration agents.
The White House sent proposed legislation to Democratic senators on Wednesday night, just about two days before the funding deadline. But Democrats rejected it as insufficient.
The proposal that Democrats blocked on Thursday had some limits that lawmakers already agreed to when they negotiated the last funding bills of the fiscal year, including $20 million in funding for officer-worn body cameras and money for training.
The measure would also require that the Homeland Security Department report how it spends the massive $190 billion slush fund that Republicans gave it last July as part of their sweeping tax and domestic policy bill.
But after federal immigration officers shot and killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old nurse, in Minneapolis last month, Democrats unanimously agreed that the spending measure that some of them had backed days earlier no longer went far enough to rein in immigration enforcement.
Buoyed by a national outcry, they pressured Republicans to agree to break off the homeland security money from a spending package that funded the rest of the government.
If no deal can be reached before the deadline, the shutdown would affect the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration. Essential services would continue operating, but employees would have to go without pay.
But federal immigration operations would most likely continue. Republicans allocated $75 billion to ICE and C.B.P. in their megabill last year, which federal immigration officials have said they could continue drawing on in the event of a shutdown. And during last year’s 43-day government closure, ICE and Border Patrol agents continued to work without pay.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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