By Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Thursday blocked legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security past a Friday deadline, as Democrats pressed to rein in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The 52-47 vote, short of the 60 votes needed to advance the bill, raises the likelihood the embattled agency would face a shutdown if funding expires on Saturday, though any real-world impact could be minimal.
Democrats said they would not support funding the agency unless Republicans agree to reforms that would rein in immigration agents. The department faces a widespread public backlash after agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said continued funding without reforms would give the green light to “a rogue police force that doesn’t obey the rules that every local police force and sheriff’s office must obey.”
The chamber’s top Republican, John Thune, argued that the legislation rejected by Democrats would address some of their proposals, including new oversight provisions and funding for body cameras and de-escalation training.
“It’s starting to look like Democrats might not have been interested in actual reforms,” he said.
The legislation would have provided $64.4 billion through September 30 to cover immigration enforcement and other functions handled by DHS, including airport security, disaster response, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Secret Service.
Funding for those efforts is due to expire at 12:01 a.m. ET (0501 GMT) on Saturday, and the agency will have to shut down “nonessential” operations if Congress does not act before then.
That might not matter much. DHS deemed 258,000 of its 272,000 employees “essential” last fall and required them to keep working during the record 43-day shutdown that ended on November 13.
Furthermore, DHS’ two main immigration enforcement agencies – Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection – were awarded huge budget increases by Congress last year, independent of the funding now hung up in Congress.
Congress is expected to begin a 10-day recess on Saturday and is not due to return to Washington until February 23, one day before President Donald Trump delivers his annual State of the Union address to Congress.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Nolan D. McCaskill; Editing by Andy Sullivan, Susan Heavey, Rod Nickel)
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