Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair

Senate Democrats scored a victory on Friday by passing a compromise budget bill with Republican support, funding all major departments, including Education, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, Defense, Labor, and Transportation. But he Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was included in a separate bill, a continuing resolution (CR), that maintained the department’s current spending levels for only two weeks.

Democrats will use this time to negotiate new rules governing immigration enforcement operations conducted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and CBP (Customs and Border Protection). Federal agents from ICE killed Renee Good, and CBP agents killed Alex Pretti.

The legislation is currently before the Republican-controlled House and must pass without amendments to avoid returning to the Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had killed past attempts to rein in ICE, announced that he will hold a vote in the House on Tuesday, February 3rd.

He continues to adhere to President Trump’s instructions, and in this case, Trump publicly supported the House’s passage of the compromised bill. Trump likely realized he could benefit from a couple of weeks of negotiations. He wasn’t committing to anything, but he could always blame the Democrats if there is no agreement in two weeks.

Trump pulled back from his usual attacks on protesters when he and Republicans reluctantly recognized that ICE’s aggressive and likely illegal actions have sparked a tsunami of protests across the nation. The day after Pretti was killed, YouGov conducted a poll and found that a majority (57%) of Americans somewhat or strongly disapprove of the way ICE is handling its job. That finding aligned with a Fox News Poll taken around the time Pretti was killed, which found that 59% of voters say ICE is too aggressive.

However, opposition to passing the budget bill and the CR is coming from right-wing Republicans and left-wing Democrats. If they succeed in........

© CounterPunch