Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the world
Senate Democrats have struck a deal with Republican lawmakers and the White House to avert a government shutdown despite a stand-off over the Trump administration’s heavy-handed immigration enforcement.
The deal, announced by Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer’s office on Thursday evening, avoids a costly government shutdown while giving lawmakers another two weeks to keep negotiating over proposed changes to rein in the White House’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Funding for the US federal government had been set to expire on Friday at midnight.
Senate Democrats have refused to sign on to additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security without securing reforms to immigration enforcement amid public outrage over the killing of 37-year-old protester Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the weekend.
Democrats have called for a tightening of rules governing how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operate, including a requirement for officers to wear body cameras and remove face masks.
The deal announced on Thursday separates the DHS from a broader US government funding package, and maintains the department’s funds at current levels for another two weeks — until February 13 — while negotiations continue.
President Donald Trump endorsed the agreement in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying: “Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security.”
“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote,” he added.
Federal immigration agents shot Pretti, an intensive care nurse and US citizen, on Saturday, less than three weeks after another US citizen, Renée Good, was killed by Ice agents in the same city.
The back-to-back shootings sparked widespread protests and piled pressure on a White House that has made the mass deportations of illegal immigrants a centrepiece of its domestic political agenda.
After DHS secretary Kristi Noem at the weekend accused Pretti of being a domestic terrorist, the White House this week worked to distance Trump from her comments.
The president later announced he was sending his border tsar Tom Homan to Minneapolis, in a move that was widely seen as a rebuke of Noem and Gregory Bovino, the divisive top border control official in the city.
Homan on Thursday morning said federal officials were working on a plan to “draw down” the number of ICE agents in Minnesota if state officials grant access to local jails.