The federal government could face a partial shutdown starting Friday if Senate Democrats refuse to vote for a spending bill that includes billions of dollars for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Senate Republicans currently lack the 60 votes required to advance the measure.
Democratic Congressmembers Doris Matsui and Mike Thompson urged the Senate to reject the bill during a press conference Tuesday outside the John Moss Federal Building in downtown Sacramento. Protestors for weeks have rallied outside the building against the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive immigration enforcement tactics in places like Minnesota and California.
Matsui, of Sacramento, said now is the time to stand up.
“We voted against the DHS bill, the funding bill,” she said, referring to House Democrats. “The Senate now has their opportunity to do that. And I think that what they’ve seen in Minneapolis will cause them to act.”
Thompson, of Napa, said cracks are emerging among Republicans who typically align with the Trump administration.
“We saw it with the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” he said. “We saw it with his nonsensical talks about Greenland. We saw it with the War Powers Act that came up and we’re seeing it now as well. Republicans better get on board or they’re going to end up on the wrong side of history.”
Democrats in Congress are pushing for the DHS spending bill to include stronger training for ICE agents and for agents to have to identify themselves, among other measures.
Republican leaders have blamed the recent unrest on sanctuary policies in states like Minnesota and California that limit cooperation between local and federal authorities.
Matsui and Thompson also called for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Thompson said recent killings involving federal agents in Minneapolis and Los Angeles show ICE has “gone rogue.”
“They’re led by someone who is completely incompetent,” he said. “Kristi Noem needs to go. She needs to quit, be fired or be impeached.”
But Giselle Garcia with the immigrant advocacy group NorCal Resist said she doesn’t expect Republicans to vote against additional funds for ICE.
“From our monitoring of the issue, I don’t think they’re there yet, despite the level of violence that we’re seeing across the board,” she said.
A NorCal Resist volunteer was hospitalized last Friday after being attacked outside of the downtown Sacramento federal building, where ICE operates. Another man was allegedly hit by a DHS vehicle, according to witnesses.
Yet, Garcia said the federal government’s continued denial about abuses happening across the country and in Sacramento is frustrating.
“Even with the images on the ground in Minneapolis, what we’ve seen in Chicago, LA and what’s happening here in our own city, people are still trying to deny fact,” she stressed.
Matsui has demanded transparency from DHS and called for an independent investigation into these incidents.
Scott Stauffer regularly protests near the parking lot entrance ICE agents typically use. He said he was shocked about the killing of intensive care nurse Alex Pretti over the weekend.
Scott Stauffer Thursday, Jan. 27, 2025, near the John Moss Federal Building in downtown Sacramento.(Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio)
“The gun was never brandished or nothing,” he said. “It wasn’t about bringing a gun to a gun fight, it was about him being able to open carry, his Second Amendment, and he got killed for it.”
Minnesota state law allows the concealed or open carry of handguns as long as the individual has a permit, which Pretti had.
Stauffer, who said his van was recently vandalized while he was protesting, said people’s rights are being taken away.
“Doesn’t matter if you’re a right-wing, centrist, liberal — it’s not politics anymore,” he emphasized. “Once your rights get taken away, that goes for everybody.”
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