As a partial government shutdown looms at week’s end, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), one of the only Democrats to consistently vote against the last shutdown, is willing to risk a lapse in government funding in order to hold the Trump administration accountable for its role in heavily criticized immigration enforcement efforts in Minneapolis. 

“Listen, in the past, I have not supported shutdowns,” she said in a Wednesday interview with The Nevada Independent. “This one is different. We are addressing appropriations for a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that has abused its position.” 

Republicans will need Democratic votes to keep the government open when funding runs out at midnight Friday. But Democrats have pledged to block a spending bill for the department, hoping to pressure the GOP and President Donald Trump for major change at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies as the country reels from the deaths of two people at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. Some Republicans — including Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), who led negotiations on the House version of the appropriations bill — have said the administration needs to make changes, though they still want to see DHS funded.

To Cortez Masto, there is one clear path to avoid a shutdown: Republicans agree to separate out the bill that funds DHS from the five other funding bills that need Senate approval.  

“We have six bills that we’ve already passed,” she said. “We have another six that we’ve agreed to on Appropriations, five of them we can just put up for a vote and pass and then work on the Homeland Security bill that clearly needs more work because of what we are seeing across the country and the excessive use of force by ICE.”

The senator did not entertain a question about whether she would be open to executive reforms or a separate legislative solution in place of changes to the funding package. Instead, she pointed to public comments from Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and John Kennedy (R-LA) that expressed openness to carving out DHS funding and noted that Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) share her concerns.  

“We need to ensure that constitutional rights of individuals are protected, and we have to ensure that they’re focused on public safety as well,” Cortez Masto said. “There shouldn’t be a toning down of rhetoric; there should be a de-escalation of ICE in our communities. They need to be focused on their traditional jurisdiction here. … You can just see for yourselves what is unfolding, and this administration, including [Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem], are lying about, so there needs to be accountability.”

Cortez Masto is the only Nevada Democrat in Congress who hasn’t explicitly called for Noem’s impeachment. Asked if the DHS secretary should be impeached, the Nevada senator demurred.

“I’ve already called her out and think that she should resign,” Cortez Masto said. “She clearly is incapable of running one of the largest organizations at the federal level, we’re seeing now, and she is not making our communities any safer. I also know, in the past, as a juror that would sit on these impeachment trials, I pretty much will, if it comes my way, I will weigh the evidence and the facts as a juror and make an appropriate decision at that time.” 

In a statement to The Nevada Independent, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), one of the Democrats who played a key role in ending the last shutdown, described a similar approach toward a funding deal to keep the government open past Friday. She named several specific guardrails she wants in place. 

“ICE is out of control, and Washington Republicans need to negotiate with us to find ways to increase accountability and transparency, and we need to protect people’s civil rights,” Rosen said. “Some of the ways we can do that are holding agents to the same standards as local law enforcement, banning masking and requiring visible identification by agents conducting immigration enforcement, requiring body cameras for ICE and [Customs and Border Protection (CBP)] agents, requiring arrest warrants signed by judges, and stopping enforcement in sensitive locations.”

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has laid out a list of demands for the DHS funding bill, including an enforceable code of conduct for federal agents conducting immigration arrests and a requirement that they identify themselves to the public.

Democratic senators met Wednesday before a crucial Thursday vote on whether to move forward with the spending legislation that funds DHS and a swath of other government agencies. Schumer said Democrats are asking the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities, coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, spell out an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules, and require that agents have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in law enforcement.

Cortez Masto told The Nevada Independent that the guardrails she has in mind are “nothing unreasonable.”

“Our federal law enforcement should follow the same protocols and standards for training, for de-escalation, for wearing body cameras, like our state and local law enforcement,” she said, pointing out body cameras have been mandated since 2018 for Nevada law enforcement officers who interact with the public. “They should coordinate, but most importantly, they should communicate with state and local law enforcement officers who are trained in public safety, who know how important it is to build the trust of the community.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), has said he was waiting for Democrats to outline what they want and he suggested that they need to be talking to the White House.

It was unclear how seriously the White House was engaged and whether the two sides could agree on anything that would appease Democrats who are irate after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti and Renee Good this month.

With no evident negotiations underway, a partial shutdown appeared increasingly likely starting Saturday.

Democrats lay out demands

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Democrats have been looking at changes that will “unite the caucus, and I think unite the country,” including ending the “roving patrols” that Democrats say are terrorizing Americans around the country.

“None of this is revolutionary,” said Murphy, the top Democrat on the subcommittee that oversees homeland security spending. “None of this requires a new comprehensive piece of legislation.”

Schumer and Murphy have said any fixes should be passed by Congress, not just promised by the administration.

Republicans say any changes to the spending will need to be passed by the House to prevent a shutdown, and that is not likely to happen in time because the House is not in legislative session this week.

“We can have conversations about what additional oversight is required, what additional laws we should consider, but not at the expense of shutting down the government,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

Many obstacles to a deal

Despite some conversations among Democrats, Republicans and the White House, it was unclear whether there could be a resolution in time to avoid a partial shutdown.

The House passed the six remaining funding bills last week and sent them to the Senate as a package, and that makes it difficult to strip out the homeland security portion as Democrats are demanding. Republicans could break the package apart with the consent of all 100 senators, which would be complicated, or through a series of votes that would extend past the Friday deadline.

It was unclear whether Trump will weigh in.

Republican leaders had hoped to avoid another shutdown after last fall’s 43-day closure that revolved around Democrats’ insistence on extending federal subsidies that make health coverage more affordable for those enrolled in the Affordable Care Act marketplace.

Even if the Senate could resolve the issue, House Republicans have made clear they do not want any changes to the bill they have passed. In a letter to Trump on Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote that its members stand with the president and ICE.

“The package will not come back through the House without funding for the Department of Homeland Security,” according to the letter.

Democrats say they won’t back down.

“The abuses of power we are seeing from ICE in Minneapolis and across the country are un-American and cannot be normalized,” Rosen said in a statement over the weekend. “My personal guiding principle has always been ‘agree where you can and fight where you must.’ And I believe this is a time when we must fight back.”