Democrats in the US Senate have blocked a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) amid ongoing fury over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and the deaths of two people in Minneapolis. The vote on Thursday was 52-47 in favour of the bill passed by the House of Representatives, but it fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
The department is almost certain to shut down at midnight on Friday, affecting agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US Coast Guard. However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) – the target of Democrats’ ire – will be largely unaffected because it already received lavish federal funding under President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill” last year.
Democrats maintained their opposition after the White House refused to bow to demands for major reforms to ICE, including requiring agents to wear identification and body cameras, and barring them from operating near schools, medical facilities, churches, polling stations, childcare facilities and courts. They also demanded that local and state law enforcement be guaranteed the right to investigate potential crimes by federal authorities, including excessive use of force.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the party wanted “commonsense” changes. “Unless there were really strong, meaningful reforms to rein in ICE and stop the violence, there will not be Democratic votes to fund ICE,” he said. Republicans supported the idea of body cameras but balked at other suggestions, which they said would tie agents’ hands.
The vote came hours after Tom Homan, the Trump administration’s “border czar”, announced that ICE was largely withdrawing its operation in Minneapolis, where feelings remain high after the shooting deaths last month of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federal agents. Republican Senator James Lankford criticised Democrats for demanding to defund all of DHS “because they’re angry about this incident”.
Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan noted that the effect of the shutdown would be limited. “Even if the current funding bill stalls, the department has an extraordinary amount of money at its disposal right now because it was funded during the big tax bill that my Republican colleagues passed last summer,” she said.
