Welcome to Washington: Democrats Sense a Moment To Strike on Deportation Politics Following Second Fatal Shooting at Minneapolis

When senators come back to Washington on Tuesday, they will have approximately 72 hours to avoid a partial shutdown of the federal government. With the death of a Minneapolis nurse, Alex Pretti, at the hands of a Border Patrol agent over the weekend, however, Democrats are more unified for a fight over deportations than they have been about any single issue in months. Welcome to Washington, where Pretti’s death, captured on video from multiple angles, has rattled lawmakers. Even a relatively small yet significant band of Republicans on Capitol Hill — the majority of whom have declined to offer even tepid criticism of the president this past year — are breaking with the White House. “The nation witnessed a horrifying situation this weekend. My prayers are with the family of Alex Pretti,” Senator Pete Ricketts, an avowed conservative, wrote on X Sunday. Senator Dave McCormick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, called the incident a “tragedy.” Senator Lisa Murkowski called for congressional investigations, saying that federal immigration agents “do not have carte blanche in carrying out their duties.”A former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Michael McCaul, said Americans’ trust in law enforcement is eroding because of these kinds of incidents. “I believe a thorough investigation is necessary — both to get to the bottom of these incidents and to maintain Americans’ confidence in our justice system,” he said in a statement Sunday. The comments from lawmakers are a departure from members of the Trump administration. Pretti has been accused of being a “domestic terrorist,” despite no evidence of him attempting to harm agents. Border Patrol officer Gregory Bovino, who said hours after Pretti died that the victim was trying to “massacre law enforcement,” has also urged members of the press and the public to wait for a full investigation to be completed, despite his assertions about Pretti’s motives. The shocking nature of the video itself — coupled with some Republicans’ clear disgust at the incident, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s rapidly falling approval rating — has Democrats ready for a serious fight. A shutdown, which is now likely given the events of the last 48 hours, could end up being a boon for Democrats. When Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month, the majority of elected Democrats called for an investigation and mostly left it at that. There was not an overwhelming appetite to try to vote down funding for the Department of Homeland Security.Now, key senators who have opposed shutdowns in the past say that they are on board with this fight. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Angus King — two of the three Democratic Caucus members who voted more than a dozen times to avoid and then end a government shutdown last year — say they will not vote to end debate and bring the DHS spending bill to the floor. In the Senate, it takes 60 votes to do so. “Senate Republicans have seen the same horrific footage that all Americans have watched of the blatant abuses of Americans by ICE in Minnesota,” Senator Chuck Schumer said Sunday. He says the six-bill funding package coming to the Senate floor at the end of this week must not include the DHS spending legislation. He says that it should be separated out and amended in a bipartisan fashion, or the whole bundle of funding bills will face a Democratic blockade. Mr. Trump’s mass deportation operation has grown far less popular in recent months, with videos of arrests, assaults, and shootings dominating Americans’ social media feeds. In February of last year, Mr. Trump had a 56 percent approval rating on the issue of immigration. Now, his approval rating on immigration has slipped to 44 percent, with 53 percent disapproving. ICE itself is viewed even less favorably. According to a poll conducted by the New York Times and Siena College last week before Pretti’s death, 63 percent disapproved of the job ICE is doing, while only 36 percent approve. The chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressman Greg Casar, has laid out some reforms at DHS which could become compelling talking points for Democrats given the polling on the issue. Mr. Casar has pitched six items in exchange for Senate Democrats’ votes to fund DHS: Deportation agents departing Minnesota; the guarantee that independent investigations will be conducted into the killings of Good and Pretti; policy changes to ensure the detention and deportation of American citizens ends; a requirement that agents show their faces; that the White House’s 3,000-arrests-per-day quota be revoked; and a new rule that only judicial warrants be used for arrests. With the vast majority of Senate Democrats opposing the DHS bill and hundreds of House Democrats backing an impeachment effort for the Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, it is clear that Democrats are emboldened to take up this fight.

Welcome to Washington: Democrats Sense a Moment To Strike on Deportation Politics Following Second Fatal Shooting at Minneapolis

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