WATCH: Senate reconvenes as Minnesota shootings, DHS funding upends spending deal

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is a “liar,” “evil,” and “incompetent” and should be fired after two protesters were killed in Minneapolis by federal authorities.

Watch the Senate floor in the video player above.

In his opening remarks as the Senate returned to Washington, Schumer said Democrats would not vote to fund the Department of Homeland Security as part of a broad spending bill passed by the House last week. The government will be partially shut down if the Senate does not approve the legislation by Friday.

Read more: The funding deal begins to unravel as Senate Democrats pledge to oppose the Department of Homeland Security bill over the shooting of Alex Peretti in Minnesota

Schumer said Republicans should delete the Department of Homeland Security spending portion of the bill and should not force a vote on legislation “that everyone knows can’t pass.”

Democrats criticized Noem and other officials for saying 37-year-old Alex Peretti “approached” immigration officers with a gun and acted violently when video evidence appeared to show otherwise.

Schumer stopped short of saying that Noem should be impeached, as dozens of Democrats signed the impeachment resolution in the House of Representatives.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune also commented, “The death of Alex Peretti was a tragedy, and there must be a full and fair investigation into the shooting.”

Thune praised President Donald Trump’s decision to send “border czar” Tom Homan to Minneapolis and expressed hope that Homan’s arrival would help restore order.

“I also hope that the recent tragedies have inspired some soul-searching among those who participated in or encouraged abuse toward ICE officers and other law enforcement officers,” Thune said.

Minneapolis shooting turns Capitol Hill politics upside down

The shooting deaths of two US citizens during the Trump administration’s deportations in Minneapolis has upended congressional immigration policy.

Democrats have woken up to what they see as a moral moment for the country, refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security’s militarized immigration enforcement operations unless there are new restrictions. Two former presidents, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, have come out of retirement to speak out.

Read more: Trump’s campaign against immigration led to a decline in the population growth rate in the United States last year

Meanwhile, Republicans who have defended Trump’s tough approach to immigration are signaling a rethink. A growing number of Republicans want a full investigation into Pretty’s shooting death and congressional hearings into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

“Americans are horrified and don’t want their tax dollars to fund this brutality,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, wrote on social media. “There’s not another cent for 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 heads toward a partial federal shutdown if a decision is not reached by midnight Friday.

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

However, she urged her colleagues to adhere to the funding agreement and avoid a “harmful shutdown.”

Searching for a way out of the crisis

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

The White House has signaled its changed strategy, sending Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, to Minneapolis to replace Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, which many Republicans see as a potential turning point toward de-escalation operations.

“This is a positive development — I hope it brings down the temperature and restores order in Minnesota,” Thune posted Monday about Homan.

He watches: Minnesota State Senator Tina Smith calls for “meaningful restraint” of “lawless” federal agents.

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

What’s at stake is the government’s six-bill funding package, not just for Homeland Security but also for the Department of Defense, Health and other departments, which make up more than 70% of federal operations.

Even though the Department of Homeland Security has billions from Trump’s big tax break bill, Democrats are uniting around changes to ICE’s operations. “We can still impose some legitimate restrictions on the way these people behave,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz.

But it seems doubtful that the Trump administration will easily agree to Democrats’ demands to rein in immigration. Proposals to screen federal agents or limit their access to schools, hospitals or churches would be difficult to quickly approve.

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

“We absolutely do not want to see funding cut,” Levitt said.

The policy reflects changing positions on Trump’s immigration agenda

The political climate is a shift 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 entered the country illegally.

Many Democrats were concerned about the Biden administration’s record of allowing countless migrants into the country. The party has increasingly been seen as soft on crime in the wake of the “defund the police” protests and in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of law enforcement.

Read more: The chief of ICE ordered him to appear in court to explain why detainees were being denied due process

But the Trump administration’s tactics changed all that.

Only 38% of US adults approve of the way Trump is handling immigration, compared to 49% in March, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in January, shortly after the death of Rene Judd, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minnesota.

Last week, nearly all House Democrats voted against the Homeland Security bill, as the package was sent to the Senate.

Then there was Pretty’s shooting death over the weekend in Minneapolis.

Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, who was among the seven Democrats who voted to approve the DHS funds, reversed course Monday in a Facebook post.

“I hear the anger from my constituents, and I take responsibility for that,” Suozzi wrote.

He said he “failed to view the DHS funding vote as a referendum on the illegal and unethical behavior of ICE in Minneapolis.”

Vote ahead as lockdown risks grow

Schumer said Monday that the responsibility to avoid another shutdown falls on Republicans, who have majority control, to dismantle the package of six bills, removing the nation’s money while allowing others to move forward.

“We can get past them immediately,” Schumer said.

But the White House criticized the approach, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who blamed Democrats for last year’s shutdown, the longest in history, remained silent. The Republican Party president will need to summon lawmakers to Washington to vote.

Republicans believe they will be able to paint Democrats as extremists if the government shuts down DHS funds, and some centrist Democrats have warned the party against strong anti-ICE language.

A memo from the centrist Democratic group Third Way had earlier warned lawmakers against proposals to “abolish” ICE as “emotionally morbid and politically fatal.” In a new memo on Monday, she proposed a “comprehensive overhaul of ICE” with top-to-bottom changes, including removing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem from her job.

The GOP faces division over deportations

But Republicans also risk siding with public opinion on Trump’s immigration and deportation agenda.

Republicans would prefer to keep the focus on Trump’s ability to secure the US-Mexico border, with illegal crossings at an all-time low, rather than a military-style deportation agenda. They are particularly sensitive to concerns from gun owner groups that Pretty, who appears to have been licensed to carry a firearm, is being criticized for having a gun on him before he was killed.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Oversight Committee, requested that acting ICE Director Todd Lyons attend a hearing, joining a similar request from House Republicans over the weekend.

Meanwhile, many GOP lawmakers continue to embrace the Trump administration’s deportation strategy.

“I want to be very clear,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said in a post. “I will not support any efforts to strip the Department of Homeland Security of its funding.”

The pressure from their right side was affecting the Republicans.

The Heritage Foundation rebuked those Republicans who were “ecstatic” at the prospect of slowing ICE operations. She said in her post: “Deport every illegal alien.” “Nothing less.”