Trump Signs Government Funding Bill, Ending Partial Shutdown and Buying Time for DHS Negotiations

President Trump signed a $1.2 trillion funding package on Tuesday after the legislation passed the House by a 217-to-214 vote, ending a partial federal government shutdown as Congress continues negotiations over Department of Homeland Security spending in the wake of two fatal officer-involved shootings last month in Minnesota.

The Senate-passed spending package funds most federal departments through September 30 but only funds DHS at current levels through February 13.

Republican leadership-led efforts to navigate the next ten days will not be easy, given many Democrats are now calling for a congressional overhaul of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which exacerbated existing public backlash against the administration’s enforcement tactics.

“I would like to abolish the agency entirely. But short of that, I want to see significant guardrails put into effect. Real checks and balances,” Representative Jim McGovern, the ranking member of the House Rules Committee, told NR ahead of Tuesday’s vote. “I really think that ICE has lost credibility amongst the American people. And it’s not just Democrats. It’s independents and it’s Republicans.”

Congressional Republicans are quick to point out that fully defunding DHS will imperil the functioning of other disaster and transportation-focused agencies. “Democrats are rightfully going to be hesitant to want to start effectively defunding FEMA and air traffic controllers and TSA agents,” Representative Brandon Gill (R., Texas) said in an interview. “So, I do think that we’ve got a little bit of leverage there.”

Democrats are demanding major overhauls to existing tactical and uniform protocol and have suggested that Congress place new restrictions on the way immigration enforcement officers operate in the field, such as eliminating roving patrols and requiring body cameras. Democrats are demanding that officers not be allowed to wear masks, a suggestion that infuriates Republicans who believe that masks prevent federal officers from doxing incidents.

Many congressional Republicans maintain that they are unwilling to fully cave to the minority party’s demands, especially given how many Democratic leaders in sanctuary cities refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.

“We’re not going to give on this stuff,” said Gill, the Texas congressman. “What they’re doing is weaponizing the chaos in Minneapolis and trying to get Republicans and the president to pull back on immigration enforcement. We’re just not going to do that.”

Some Republicans are particularly frustrated by the out-of-power party’s demand that federal officers obtain judicial warrants for all immigration enforcement-related arrests and searches, a change that would place a major burden on judges nationwide and significantly restrict the number of aliens the administration can deport.

“I have a great deal of sympathy for, again, the secretaries, the people charged with cleaning up this enormous mess,” Republican Senator Johnson of Wisconsin told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday. “Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Can things be tightened up? Sure. But the way to tighten it up is not to neuter our ability to enforce our immigration laws.”

Against this backdrop, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem is struggling to reassert herself as the face of the administration’s deportation agenda in the wake of public outrage over the recent shootings. In a social media statement on Monday afternoon, Noem announced that she had spoken with border czar Tom Homan, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons and that the group agreed to deploy body cameras to every federal officer “in the field in Minneapolis” effective “immediately.”

“As funding is available, the body camera program will be expanded nationwide,” she added.

The announcement comes after Trump decided last week to dispatch Homan to Minnesota, where the ex-cop and former Obama deportation chief spoke on the ground last week with local officials in a broader effort to quell nationwide concern about the deportation tactics being used there.

“I didn’t come for photo ops or headlines,” Homan said on the ground in remarks that were widely interpreted as a thinly veiled swipe at Noem, who often dresses in law enforcement officer attire during ride-alongs with federal agents. “I came here to seek solutions, and that’s what we’re going to do, and we’ve come a long way.”