Good afternoon. Here is a critical midday update as Washington edges closer to a partial government shutdown at the end of the week. I just got off the phone with Dr. Erin Stevens, a Minneapolis based OB/GYN who confirmed to me that women are giving birth on their own out of fear of going to the hospital because of ICE. You do not want to miss the interview. Meanwhile, Democrats are holding firm this afternoon and just blocked a vote to fund ICE. I am working around the clock right now to get you updates. Please subscribe to support my work if you can.
In a dramatic vote minutes ago, bipartisan senators blocked a massive government spending package, throwing ongoing eleventh-hour negotiations into deeper uncertainty. The six-bill funding package failed to advance after all Senate Democrats, joined by a handful of Republicans, voted to halt the process, citing deep concerns over immigration enforcement and accountability within the Department of Homeland Security.
Democrats are leveraging the funding fight to demand changes to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement policies following murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Rather than allowing DHS funding to move forward untouched, Democrats are insisting that funding for the department, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection, be split off from the rest of the spending package so it can be renegotiated separately.
Their position is clear. No more business as usual for ICE without accountability.
The procedural vote failed 45–55. Seven conservative Republicans joined Democrats in voting “no,” effectively freezing the package. Senate Majority Leader John Thune strategically switched his vote to “no” as well, a parliamentary move that allows him to bring the bill back up for reconsideration at a later time.
Despite the setback, President Trump struck an optimistic tone, suggesting a shutdown could still be avoided.
“Hopefully, we won’t have a shutdown. We’re working on that right now,” Trump said. “I think we’re getting close. The Democrats, I don’t believe, want to see it either. So we’ll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown. We don’t want to shut down.”
But those words rang hollow almost immediately.
Just moments after Trump’s remarks, the Senate voted down the procedural motion to advance the current funding package, underscoring the reality that the bill does not have the votes to pass in its current form.
If lawmakers fail to secure unanimous consent from all 100 senators to split DHS funding from the broader package, which is a key Democratic demand, the consequences will be sweeping. Funding would lapse for several major federal departments, including Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, disrupting programs, paychecks, and services nationwide.
Meanwhile, an unexpected twist is unfolding inside the Trump administration itself.
White House border czar Tom Homan announced that there could be a “significant drawdown” of federal immigration agents, but only if state and local governments comply with the administration’s demand to open local jails to federal authorities.
“This is common-sense cooperation that allows us to draw down on the number of people we have here,” Homan said during a news conference.
That statement landed like a thunderclap in MAGA circles.
Many on the right had expected Homan to escalate enforcement efforts in Minneapolis following protests and political backlash. Instead, he delivered a public rebuke, not of protesters, but of ICE itself.
In a moment that stunned hardline immigration supporters, Homan made it clear that federal agents are not above scrutiny.
No matter the protests or political pressure, he said, ICE and CBP agents must conduct themselves professionally or face consequences.
“They will be dealt with,” Homan warned.
The reaction among MAGA loyalists has been one of stunned silence.
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