By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Jan 22 (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday were girding to oppose a Department of Homeland Security funding bill, in protest of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, which could risk a partial government shutdown at the end of the month.
This comes as Congress stares down a January 31 deadline to pass spending bills to keep federal agencies across the Trump administration operating, or risk the second government shutdown in four months.
Lawmakers have made progress on that front so far, as several of those bills have won the support of Republican and Democratic negotiators.
But leading Democrats in the House are planning to oppose the Homeland Security spending bill as the nation is reeling over the January 7 killing of a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Democratic leaders say the bill lacks sufficient guardrails against ICE excesses and their opposition could prompt many rank-and-file Democrats to follow suit.
“They should not be able to fire at moving vehicles unless their life is in danger and they are and that’s wrong,” No. 2 House Democrat Pete Aguilar of California told reporters on Wednesday.
Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, said the bill empowers frontline agents to uphold immigration laws.
With Republicans’ razor-thin 218-213 House majority, it was unclear whether Speaker Mike Johnson could win passage of the $64.4 billion bill. Prospects are also unclear in the Senate.
Defeat could trigger furloughs of DHS workers deemed “unessential,” which likely would not have an impact on ICE operations. Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” enacted last year, lavished ICE with an additional $75 billion whether or not the House passed the DHS spending bill.
Some Democrats are calling on colleagues to recognize their limits and support the package.
“The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of (ICE) accountability we need,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, referring to November’s congressional elections.
Aside from the immigration dispute, experts say the spending bills show some evidence that Congress is moving to reassert its control over federal spending, after Trump refused to spend billions of dollars that had already been signed into law last year.
Brendan Duke of the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said the spending bills protect many programs targeted by Trump, such as medical research, housing and education.
“We will see if President Trump respects this agreement,” he said.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Andy Sullivan and Michael Perry)
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