The chances of a partial government shutdown at the end of the week are significantly higher following the shooting death of another person in Minnesota by a federal officer over the weekend.
Congress last week appeared poised to avoid a shutdown, with the House having approved the remaining appropriations bills for the rest of fiscal 2026. The bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was the most controversial one given it included funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Most Democrats in the House voted against the DHS funding bill, citing concerns after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month. Still, a handful of Democrats broke party lines to back the bill, and enough Senate Democrats seemed likely to vote for that bill this coming week to stave off the shutdown before the end-of-Friday deadline.
But the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a local Veterans Affairs hospital, in Minneapolis on Saturday has thrown that into flux as Democrats excoriate ICE’s conduct and make clear they will refuse to support the current DHS funding bill.
Trump administration officials have portrayed the incident as one in which federal officers acted in self-defense from Pretti. Officials claimed he approached agents with a handgun, but multiple eyewitness videos have contradicted those claims.
In one video, Pretti appears to only be holding a phone while recording Border Patrol agents. When an agent shoves another person, Pretti moves to stand between them.
The agent then sprays Pretti with a chemical irritant and brings him to the ground. Multiple agents surround Pretti as he and the officers begin to tussle. An agent appears to remove a handgun from Pretti’s belt and move away from the area as another agent fires a shot at Pretti, followed by a few other shots after a brief pause.
Pretti was licensed to carry a concealed weapon, his family said.
State and local officials renewed their denunciations of the DHS presence in Minnesota. Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) called on President Trump to pull federal officers out of the state.
They’ve also called for a full investigation into what happened, but the state has been cut out of the probe. Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans said Saturday that DHS has taken over the investigation and shut out his agency.
“We’re in uncharted territory here,” Evans said.
Trump declined to say in an interview with The Wall Street Journal whether the agent did the right thing in fatally shooting Pretti, saying the administration was "reviewing everything."
“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump said. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”
He said federal agents would leave the area "at some point" but didn't share a timeline.
Following the shooting, a former senior Senate Democratic aide told The Hill on Sunday the chances of a shutdown had spiked to around 90 percent.
Some of the moderate Democrats who seemed like they might’ve been willing to support the DHS bill just days ago are all now vowing to block it.
“This brutal crackdown has to end. I cannot and will not vote to fund DHS while this administration continues these violent federal takeovers of our cities,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said in a post on the social platform X.
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) wrote on X that she would vote against any package funding DHS until guardrails are in place to “curtail these abuses of power and ensure more accountability and transparency.”
Multiple Republican senators expressed concern about the incident and called for transparency in an investigation. The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports that Senate Republicans are divided over ICE’s tactics.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) called the incident "incredibly disturbing."
"The credibility of ICE and DHS are at stake. There must be a full joint federal and state investigation. We can trust the American people with the truth," he said on X.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) capped off the Democratic pushback Saturday evening with a statement saying that Democrats would block the government funding package if it includes more money for DHS.
While Democrats’ issue is mostly just with the DHS bill, avoiding a temporary partial shutdown that includes other government departments and agencies will be complicated. The DHS bill is part of a minibus that contains five other bills.
Schumer called for Senate Republicans to separate the DHS bill from the rest, which would allow the Senate to approve funding for those other agencies. But doing so would require the House to pass the five-bill package again, and the chamber is out of town this week.
If bipartisan agreement remains on the other bills, funding could be restored for those departments quickly next week, but a temporary funding gap would likely still be necessary.
A White House official said the administration hopes “cooler heads prevail” and accused Democrats of trying to score political points. But tensions are only rising heading into the week.
▪ The Hill: Senator calls administration’s narrative of shooting deceptive.
▪ CNN: Video analysis of shooting.
