Senate Democrats are demanding changes to legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security after federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last weekend — but the party has not yet coalesced around a list of priorities days before a crucial deadline.
That means a partial government shutdown is looking likelier. Most of the federal government will close Saturday unless Congress passes legislation to keep it open. Democratic senators have said they will not vote for any funding bill unless Republicans agree to remove DHS funding from a larger appropriations package or include new measures to rein in the agency.
Republicans have not ruled out making changes to the legislation in the wake of Pretti’s death at the hands of immigration authorities, which has unnerved some Republican senators as well as Democrats. But the two parties have less than 72 hours to make a deal before current funding laws expire.
Republicans are open to negotiating with Democrats “if they can define what it is they want,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) told reporters. “Right now, that seems to be kind of a moving target.”
The existing funding package would send $64.4 billion to DHS, including $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, similar to existing funding levels.
It already includes limited restrictions on the agency that Democrats won in earlier negotiations, including a decrease in detention beds, lowered funding for Border Patrol and for ICE’s enforcement and removal operations, and $20 million for body cameras for ICE and Border Patrol agents. It does not include other changes that Democrats had sought, including prohibitions on ICE agents shooting at moving vehicles or detaining U.S. citizens.
The Homeland Security funding is attached to five other measures that would fund vast swaths of the federal government, including the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services. If it does not pass before 12:01 a.m. Saturday, all work at these agencies that is not deemed essential to protect public safety, national security or government property would stop. The immediate effects might be blunted because the shutdown would begin on a weekend.
Senate Democrats have proposed more than a dozen different ideas meant to prevent federal immigration and border agents from carrying out abuses and to hold them accountable.
Many Democratic senators want to mandate that ICE agents show their faces, wear identification and wear body cameras. Others want an explicit ban on agents racially profiling during stops and arrests or a prohibition on ICE raids at “sensitive locations” such as schools and churches.
Other ideas include ending arrest quotas, eliminating a directive that allows agents to enter people’s homes without a warrant, and requiring the consent of state and local officials to conduct raids. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) has proposed an amendment that would require the DHS inspector general to “deploy teams of criminal investigators and other personnel to investigate all use of force incidents that have occurred since January 20, 2025.”
“There’s a lot of reforms on the table. I think what we’re trying to do as a caucus is come up with a limited number of reforms that will put significant restraints on potential abuses,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), one of a small number of Democrats who voted to end a shutdown in November, who says he won’t back the DHS spending bill now without changes. “But the first thing we have to do is split the bills.”
Democrats have emphasized different priorities. Many of them have called on President Donald Trump to fire DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) demanded Trump fire Stephen Miller, his deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, who is the architect of the administration’s immigration strategy.
“Trump needs to fire him,” Gallego wrote on Tuesday evening on X. “Now. No funding DHS with that creep calling the shots.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
But other Democrats have suggested that Trump firing Miller or Noem would not be enough to win their votes. Instead, they want changes included in the funding bill so that the administration cannot undo them after it passes.
Republicans do not want to split the Homeland Security bill off from five other appropriations bills that the Senate is set to consider as a package. Any changes to the existing measure would require sending it back to the House, which is not scheduled to return until Monday after a shutdown would start. It’s not clear if the House can pass any revisions, either: The House Freedom Caucus has said it would try to block the funding if it comes back to the House without Homeland Security funding.
“If Democrats insist on reneging and shutting down the government, endangering Americans to side with criminal illegal aliens, the Freedom Caucus stands ready to take all steps necessary to fund the government unilaterally,” the large, conservative caucus said in a statement Tuesday, including an “emergency reconciliation bill” to fund Homeland Security and the Defense Department.
Some Senate Republicans are opposed to making concessions. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) on Tuesday posted a clip from “The Godfather: Part II” of Michael Corleone saying, “My offer is this: nothing.”
“Democrats are using this tragedy as a scapegoat to try to force changes to government funding that they know cannot be done in the time we have left” before the government shuts down, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Wednesday on the Senate floor.
Senate Democrats are expected to discuss a formal list of demands during a caucus lunch Wednesday. Top Republican appropriators say they’re exploring options that could satisfy both parties, and some Democrats involved in negotiations with Republican leaders say they’re optimistic that a deal could be reached.
“Constructive conversations are happening,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told reporters Tuesday. “I think we should be able to land this.”
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