Sen. Chris Murphy All But Promises There Will Be Another Shutdown Because DHS Is ‘Murdering’ People

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said Sunday morning during an appearance on CNN that his party’s caucus could not support a bill aimed at averting a government shutdown and aimed at defunding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which he said was “murdering American citizens.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Saturday that his party’s caucus “would not provide the votes” needed to pass a spending package that includes a DHS funding bill. The statement came hours after Border Patrol agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Murphy appeared to agree with Schumer, saying on “State of the Union with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash” that “Democrats will not vote” for the package — which if not passed by the Jan. 30 deadline would send the country into a partial government shutdown. (RELATED: ‘What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling’: Schumer vows Democrats won’t support ‘woefully inadequate’ DHS funding bill)

“Well, we can’t vote to defund this lawless Department of Homeland Security,” the Connecticut Democrat told host Dana Bash after asking her for her thoughts on Schumer’s remarks. “And remember, it’s not just in Minnesota. They’re breaking the law all over the country.”

Murphy then said he had spent the previous week in Texas where he said DHS agents were “detaining two- and three-year-old children who are legally here in the United States for the sole purpose of traumatizing them.”

“This is a nationwide campaign of lawlessness. I have sworn an oath to the Constitution. Every United States senator has done so as well. We cannot fund a Department of Homeland Security that is murdering American citizens, that is traumatizing little boys and girls across this country, in violation of the law,” the senator told Bash.

WATCH:

Murphy said Democrats “should only vote for a bill that puts limits on this lawlessness, that reforms the way they endanger our citizens in our cities.”

Along the same lines, Schumer had described the funding package including the DHS bill, as currently constructed, as “woefully inadequate to curb ICE abuses.” [Immigration and Customs Enforcement].”

“So, yes, Democrats will not vote to fund this version of the Department of Homeland Security. But if we can get serious reforms that save and protect lives in our cities, then we will come to the table,” Murphy told Bash. “But this is something that the American people are demanding of us right now: 60 to 70 percent of Americans don’t support what ICE is doing, and they don’t want Democrats or Republicans funding this kind of lawlessness in our cities.”

In order to pass the six-bill funding plan and avoid a partial government shutdown, Republicans, assuming no defections, need at least seven Democratic senators to vote in favor and break the upper chamber’s 60-vote filibuster by Jan. 30.

Schumer, in an

Please take a minute to read this heartbreaking statement from Nurse Pretti’s family.

After their son was killed in broad daylight, they are now forced to defend him against the lies of this administration.

This is another reason why Senate Democrats are united in rejecting this DHS… https://t.co/Ghqe5VF84c

– Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) January 25, 2026

In his message, Schumer said Pretti “was killed in broad daylight” and accused the Trump administration of lying about the facts of the shooting that took the 37-year-old’s life.

Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, the party’s top official in the upper chamber, warned against fellow Democrats pursuing a government shutdown to protest DHS funding in a statement released days before Pretti’s death.

ICE must be reined in, and unfortunately neither a CR nor a shutdown would do anything to restrain it, because, thanks to the Republicans, ICE now sits on a massive slush fund that it can tap into whether or not we pass a funding bill.

My full statement on the DHS funding bill. pic.twitter.com/PKiqWhTUIU

– Senator Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) January 20, 2026

“ICE must be brought under control, and unfortunately, neither a CR [continuing resolution] nor would a shutdown do anything to constrain it, because, thanks to the Republicans, ICE now sits on a massive slush fund that it can tap into whether or not we pass a funding bill,” Murray wrote in his Jan. 20 statement.

“We need to do much more to get DHS under control, which I will continue to push for. But the hard truth is that Democrats need to win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need,” added the Senate’s top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “If you believe we should spend more of our tax dollars on health care and our immigration enforcement should focus on real criminals instead of tear gasing America’s children, then we need to speak out again and again – and we need to take our fight to the ballot box. »

During the record 43-day shutdown in fall 2025, Murphy voted with Schumer and the vast majority of Senate Democrats against reopening the government more than a dozen times. In November 2025, days before eight Democratic senators reached an agreement with Republicans to end the shutdown, Murphy warned that his party’s “brand” would suffer “pretty substantial damage” if he stopped prolonging the standoff.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan news service, is available free to any legitimate news publisher capable of delivering a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and DCNF affiliation. For questions about our guidelines or our partnership, please contact licenses@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.