SARAH MCCAMMON, HOST:
The federal government has entered a partial shutdown. The hope is that it won't last for long. That's because the Senate voted 71 to 29 on Friday to keep funding flowing for most government offices. The spending deal now heads to the House, which returns from recess on Monday to take up the package. But how quickly it takes to resolve things could come down to a fight over changes to federal immigration enforcement. NPR immigration policy correspondent Ximena Bustillo has been tracking all of this and joins us now to discuss. Hi, Ximena.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Hey, Sarah.
MCCAMMON: So the Senate has passed this funding compromise, and President Trump has endorsed it. Tell us what's in it.
BUSTILLO: Democrats and Republicans in the Senate agreed on a two-week extension for the funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The hope is that it will allow for enough time to negotiate immigration enforcement reforms after federal agents killed two Americans in Minneapolis this month. The two-week window is for negotiating just that part. The rest of the government - including the Department of Defense and Health and Human Services and other agencies - will get funding through September. However, the way Congress works is that if one member makes any change at all, it has to go back to the other chamber. So this deal will need to be revoted on in the House, which does not come back until Monday.
MCCAMMON: Right. A lot of people will remember that ICE already got $75 billion from Congress last summer. So what's the difference here?
BUSTILLO: Right, you're talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill. It did make ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency. And now Congress by law still has to do what's called annual appropriations. That's the baseline budget for each department that has to get renewed every year, or we talk about these shutdowns.
MCCAMMON: Right.
BUSTILLO: So in this instance, we're talking about funding for all of DHS, not just ICE through the end of the fiscal year.
MCCAMMON: OK, so when it comes to changes in immigration enforcement, what are Democrats asking for?
BUSTILLO: Senate Democrats have outlined about three buckets of policy changes that they're pursuing. First, what they call ending roving patrols - this primarily has to do with the use of warrants. Officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were using administrative warrants and not necessarily judicial warrants to authorize that they enter people's homes as a part of their push for mass deportations. A memo described how the agency was doing this. You might see the difference is judicial warrants are approved by judges instead of by the agency. Democrats say that this raises questions about whether people's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizures are being violated.
Second, Democrats want to make it easier to pursue legal action against immigration officers and for independent investigations into ICE and other federal enforcement misconduct. They say the agency just isn't doing a good job of investigating itself.
And third, Democrats want to mandate that immigration agents display clear identification, not cover their faces with homemade devices, and wear body cameras.
MCCAMMON: OK, but Republicans are, of course, in control here. What are they saying about these demands?
BUSTILLO: The splitting off of the DHS bill is a sign that Republicans are interested in negotiating and that there's a growing awareness of the falling public support of ICE's tactics. Senate Homeland Security Committee Chair Rand Paul said that he's, quote, "not a fan of administrative warrants," signaling perhaps some flexibility on that point. And others, like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said that they're open to talks about how to, quote, "reform ICE."
Still, divides do continue to persist within the Republican Party. Several Republicans also told us that ICE is doing their job. And since the House had already passed additional mandates for reporting and training and about $20 million for the agency to purchase more body cameras in their earlier version of the spending package, some Republicans don't think that it needs to go much further than that.
MCCAMMON: OK, Ximena, what else are you watching over the next few weeks?
BUSTILLO: So the House comes back on Monday. So we'll be tracking how soon they vote, and that's what could determine how long this government shutdown continues. Speaker Mike Johnson is working with a razor-thin majority, and some Republicans have pushed back on the Senate's demands. Apart from that vote, I'll also be watching how lawmakers move forward with oversight of immigration enforcement. Lawmakers could also move quickly to schedule additional hearings. There are already two scheduled, where we will see the leadership of ICE and border patrol come in and testify before lawmakers the week that this DHS funding bill is on track to expire. A lot of eyes are also on how Trump officials are scaling back operations in Minneapolis, and that could certainly impact negotiations, too. So we'll just see what happens over the next two weeks.
MCCAMMON: NPR's Ximena Bustillo. Thank you so much.
BUSTILLO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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