WASHINGTON — The shooting deaths of two American citizens during the Trump administration’s deportation operations in Minneapolis have upended the politics of immigration in Congress, plunging the country toward another government shutdown.

Democrats have awakened to what they see as a moral moment for the country, refusing funds for the Department of Homeland Security’s military-style immigration enforcement operations unless there are new restraints. Two former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, have broken from retirement to speak out.

At the same time, Republicans who have championed President Donald Trump’s tough approach to immigration are signaling second thoughts. A growing number of Republicans want a full investigation into the shooting death of Alex Pretti and congressional hearings about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

“Americans are horrified & don’t want their tax dollars funding this brutality,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., wrote on social media. “Not another dime to this lawless operation.”

The result is a rapidly changing political environment as the nation considers the reach of the Trump administration’s well-funded immigration enforcement machinery and Congress spirals toward a partial federal shutdown if no resolution is reached by midnight Friday.

“The tragic death of Alex Pretti has refocused attention on the Homeland Security bill, and I recognize and share the concerns,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the GOP chair of the Appropriations Committee, in brief remarks Monday.

Still, she urged colleagues to stick to the funding deal and avoid a “detrimental shutdown.”

Searching for a

way out of a crisis

As Congress seeks to defuse a crisis, the next steps are uncertain.

The White House has indicated its own shifting strategy, sending Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis to take over for hard-charging Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, which many Republicans see as a potential turning point to calm operations.

“This is a positive development — one that I hope leads to turning down the temperature and restoring order in Minnesota,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune posted about Homan.

Behind the scenes, the White House is reaching out to congressional leaders, and even individual Democratic senators, in search of a way out of another government shutdown.

At stake is a six-bill government funding package, not just for Homeland Security but for Defense, Health and other departments, making up more than 70% of federal operations.

Even though Homeland Security has billions from Trump’s big tax break bill, Democrats are coalescing around changes to ICE operations. “We can still have some legitimate restriction on how these people are conducting themselves,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.

But it appears doubtful the Trump administration would readily agree to Democrats’ demands to rein in immigration operations. Proposals for unmasking federal agents or limiting their reach into schools, hospitals or churches would be difficult to quickly approve in Congress.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that while conversations are underway, Trump wants to see the bipartisan spending package approved to avoid the possibility of a government shutdown.

“We absolutely do not want to see that funding lapse,” Leavitt said.

Politics reflect changing attitudes on Trump’s

immigration agenda

The political climate is a turnaround from just a year ago, when Congress easily passed the Laken Riley Act, the first bill Trump signed into law in his second term.

At the time, dozens of Democrats joined the GOP majority in passing the bill named after a Georgia nursing student who was killed by a Venezuelan man who had entered the country illegally.

Many Democrats had worried about the Biden administration’s record of having allowed untold immigrants into the country. The party was increasingly seen as soft on crime following the “defund the police” protests and the aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the the hands of law enforcement.