WASHINGTON – Prominent Democrats have been insisting as a Jan. 30 federal funding deadline creeped closer that they likely wouldn’t risk another government shutdown, and all the pain that comes with it.
Minneapolis may be changing their minds.
The latest deadly altercation in the city is threatening to imperil an 11th-hour scramble in Congress to get the last of its appropriations bills passed in less than a week. And it's prompting calls from some Democrats to strip out a Department of Homeland Security funding measure for a separate vote, rather than risk a partial shutdown on the heels of last year's record-breaking crisis.
The fraught political moment – shaped by the killings of two Minnesotans by federal agents in fewer than three weeks – is underscoring just how central pushing back on President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration policies has become to the Democratic party, especially with the midterm elections approaching in November.
Read more: 'Beautiful light of our family.' Renee Good’s family reveals new details about morning she was killed by ICE
