Democrats Charge Forward With Shutdown Threat Over ICE Funding

The Senate on Thursday rejected a six-bill appropriations package funding large swaths of the federal government, with Democrats citing their opposition to funding federal immigration enforcement after weeks of unrest in Minnesota.

Lawmakers voted 45-55, well below the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the funding plan. The decision by Senate Democrats — and some Republicans — to obstruct government funding will almost certainly trigger a partial government shutdown starting at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. (RELATED: Schumer reveals what Democrats want so they don’t force another shutdown)

Republican Senators Ted Budd of North Carolina, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Ashley Moody and Rick Scott of Florida, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama also opposed advancing the funding. The conservative group of lawmakers includes several prominent fiscal hawks and abortion opponents. Budd told reporters he voted “no” because of concerns about “abortion funding” in the package.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune also voted “no” on the failed procedural vote, so he could put the package up for a vote later.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s shutdown threat comes just three months after Democrats plunged the country into a record 43-day funding shutdown in the fall of 2025 over Obamacare subsidies.

Although the six-bill package was negotiated in a bipartisan manner, Democrats unanimously spoke out against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding measure included in the funding plan following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, 37, in Minneapolis on Saturday.

Senate Democrats demanded that Republicans separate the DHS funding measure from the five additional government funding bills included in the package, which the House overwhelmingly approved Thursday. Schumer wants to renegotiate the bill and is reportedly discussing a number of reforms to federal immigration control with the White House. No deal on DHS funding was reached before Thursday’s vote.

“It’s pretty clear that people want to end these roving, indiscriminate patrols that endanger citizens’ lives,” Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said Wednesday. “They don’t want any more masked secret police, and they want accountability for what has already happened to American citizens.”

Democrats’ demand that federal immigration agents remove their masks is almost certainly a setback for Republicans, who fear immigration agents will be doxxed by far-left agitators.

“We are not going to stop ICE from doing its job,” Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Wednesday.

Border czar Tom Homan announced Thursday that federal immigration authorities would focus their operations on illegal aliens with criminal records. He also discussed a possible withdrawal of federal immigration agents in Minnesota if local officials choose to cooperate with the Trump administration. It was not immediately clear whether Homan’s remarks helped soften Democrats’ opposition to the DHS funding bill.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA – JANUARY 29: Border Czar Tom Homan speaks during a press conference on ongoing immigration enforcement operations on January 29, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Republicans also noted that Democrats’ decision to block DHS funding could mean more money for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), not less. A stopgap spending measure, known as a Continuing Resolution (CR), is expected to fund DHS at a higher amount than the DHS funding measure passed by the House and negotiated between the two parties. The CR also would not include the ICE reforms that Democrats secured in the House-passed DHS bill, which included $20 billion for ICE body cameras.

The tens of billions of dollars that President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocated to ICE and CBP also mean that federal immigration enforcement would likely continue moving full steam if the government shut down, while other vital agencies funded by the DHS bill would grind to a halt.

The DHS bill also funds the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and TSA, among other agencies.

“It shuts down the Secret Service – that’s pretty big, right? Mullin said regarding Democrats’ obstruction of the DHS funding bill. “It shuts down FEMA. That’s really important, especially with the ice storms and everything that’s going on. It also shuts down the Coast Guard and TSA. That’s when they actually shut down.”

“ICE pay is going to disappear again,” Mullin continued, referring to credits the agency received as part of the Republican tax and spending cuts law.

Democrats could face immense public pressure to withhold billions in federal disaster funds if FEMA runs out of money during a prolonged shutdown. However, some lawmakers say the fight to fund ICE is worth it.

“It really is a moral moment,” Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a brief interview Tuesday. “I would be willing to take the heat and vote against transportation, the Department of Health and Human Services, everything else, because I think we need to take a stand.”

The defense appropriations package is also included in the six-bill package. The bill funds troop pay, meaning U.S. service members would lose a paycheck absent intervention from the Trump administration in the event of a prolonged shutdown.

Only seven House Democrats voted “yes” Thursday on the DHS funding bill, but Democratic support for funding federal immigration enforcement collapsed further over the weekend following the Pretti shooting. Some of the defecting Democrats have since expressed support for defunding ICE and publicly apologized to the party base.

Congress has already passed six of 12 appropriations bills, including funding for the legislative branch, meaning a second shutdown shouldn’t be as painful as the one in 2025. Federal nutrition aid has also been fully funded for the rest of the fiscal year. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), on which tens of millions of Americans rely, became an issue during the latest lockdown.

Andi Shae Napier and Caden Olson contributed to this report.

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