The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a funding measure that would end the partial government shutdown, while giving Democrats time to negotiate with Republican leaders in the White House and Congress over restrictions on Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
The Republican-controlled chamber approved the $1.2tn appropriations measure by a vote of 217-214, with all but 21 Republicans voting in favor and all but 21 Democrats against. Trump is expected to sign it, ending the shutdown that began after midnight Friday, which halted operations at several departments including defense, health and human services, labor and transportation.
The funding jump came after Democrats refused to approve continued funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following the killing of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis amid the Trump administration’s surge in immigration enforcement in the city.
Democrats have called for more guardrails to be imposed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Among their conditions is the requirement that federal agents wear body cameras and stop wearing masks, follow a code of conduct and obtain arrest warrants for people in the country illegally.
“What the Democrats want is more common,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the floor Tuesday.
Democrats initially blocked passage of the spending package in the Senate last week, prompting the White House to agree to a deal in which DHS would be funded for two weeks while the rest of the departments would have spending authorization until September, when the 2026 fiscal year ends.
In a statement released after the vote, Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said the changes his party is demanding “must be part of any full-year appropriations bill” for DHS.
“Americans from every corner of the country are demanding accountability and an end to the lawless, paramilitary tactics used by ICE in our communities. Without bold and meaningful change, there is no credible path forward with respect to next week’s Department of Homeland Security funding bill,” Jeffries said.
The prospects for a bipartisan agreement on the conduct of agents remain unclear. On Monday, the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem, announced that all federal agents in Minneapolis will immediately begin wearing body cameras, with plans to expand their use nationwide.
However, Schumer argued, the policy was not enough to alleviate the anger of the Democrats over the killings in Minnesota’s largest city, as well as allegations of brutal tactics and racial profiling of US citizens by ICE agents.
“And why just Minneapolis? This policy, which is the right policy, should be across the country. There’s no reason to delay that,” Schumer said.
“Most importantly, executive actions alone are not enough for the American people. We need to pass legislation. We know how strange Donald Trump is. He will say something one day and take it back the next.”
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, a close ally of Trump, came out against both of the Democrats’ demands, saying in a press conference on Tuesday that he opposes requiring federal agents to obtain arrest warrants.
“Imagine if we had to go through the process of getting a judicial warrant, an additional warrant, to go and arrest people who we know are here illegally. How long will it take? We don’t have enough judges. We don’t have enough time,” said the speaker.
In an interview with Fox News Sunday, Johnson said that demands by Democrats that ICE agents stop wearing masks and have visible identification “create more danger”, and said he did not think Trump would support it.