Senate DHS funding fight intensifies after Minneapolis ICE shootings

The U.S. House has passed the Department of Homeland Security funding bill as part of a $1.2 trillion spending package, keeping annual ICE funding roughly flat but tightening how Secretary Kristi Noem can move money and earmarking $20 million for body cameras on ICE and CBP officers — all while the same agencies are running the massive Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis–St. Paul. Democratic senators, citing three federal‑agent shootings in Minneapolis in less than a month — the killings of Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti and a separate non‑fatal shooting in north Minneapolis — are now openly opposing DHS funding and warning they may block the bill in the Senate even at the risk of another partial shutdown after Jan. 30. The bill would force DHS to file monthly plans explaining exactly how it will spend the money Congress just appropriated, a response to what both parties admit has been an almost free hand for the department to finance Trump’s deportation push. For Twin Cities residents, the outcome will determine whether the federal government keeps writing checks for the surge on our streets as‑is, whether Congress reins it in with tighter strings, or whether Democrats actually try to use the threat of a shutdown to force changes in how ICE and Border Patrol operate here. On social media, national Democrats are amplifying video from Minneapolis protests while immigration‑hardliners portray any move to block the bill as "defunding border security," underscoring how this funding fight is now being waged over what federal agents are doing in south and north Minneapolis, not just at the southern border.