Rank-and-file Democrats are starting to make serious noise about using the threat of a government shutdown to force substantive changes at ICE.

Why it matters: Their anger, after an ICE officer shot and killed a 37-year-old woman today in Minneapolis, sets them on a collision course with party leaders.

• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier this week that a shutdown was not on the table.
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, asked if the appropriations process should be used to constrain ICE, told us: "We're focused right now on … advancing the Affordable Care Act tax credits."

But progressive lawmakers see the end-of-January funding cliff as a leverage point to exploit, as they fume about the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary Kristi Noem.

• "Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn't restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said on X following the shooting.
• Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said: "We can't just keep authorizing money for these illegal killers. That's what they are, this rogue force."
• "Statements and letters are not enough, and the appropriations process and the CR expiring Jan. 31 is our opportunity," said Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.).

Between the lines: Getting both sides to agree on funding for a department as divisive as DHS was always going to prove challenging.

• Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) told us today: "I'm having a hard time seeing how we're gonna come to agreement on it."
• "We need to arrest that ICE agent for a excessive use of power," Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told us. "And we should be opposing the hundreds of billions of dollars going to a lawless agency."

The other side: Among the Republicans defending ICE after the shooting are several members of leadership, including House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and House Republican conference chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.).

• "Our brave ICE agents put their lives on the line every day to protect our communities from dangerous criminals. May God bless and protect them in their efforts," Emmer said in a statement.
• DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin said: "An ICE officer, fearing for his life, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots."

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— Stephen Neukam, Andrew Solender and Hans Nichols

Members of Congress rediscovered their ICE oversight authority in 2025, making as many visits to ICE facilities as the prior three years combined.

• "This is the highest number of Congressional visits organized and hosted by ICE since we began tracking this data in FY 2016," ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons told us in a statement.

Why it matters: By law, members can visit ICE detention sites at any time. But the agency has tried to limit that access, accusing Democratic lawmakers of using the visits for political theatrics.

• Some oversight visits have been particularly contentious, including a May incident outside a new ICE facility that led to an indictment against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.).

The bottom line: 31 people died in ICE custody in 2025, according to Rep. Jayapal, whose office receives death reports as she's the top Democrat on the Subcommittee on Immigration, Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.

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— Brittany Gibson

Some GOP senators are calling on the White House to cool its hot Greenland rhetoric – and tamp down President Trump's Arctic ambitions.

• Why it matters: Hallway criticism is one thing. Voting with Democrats to pass a war powers resolution would mark an escalation.

Driving the news: The Senate will have an opportunity to formally rebuke Trump for his "Don-Roe doctrine" tomorrow. The vote will also serve as a proxy for senators who are queasy over his Greenland talk.

• It would only take 51 votes to pass in the Senate, sending a clear message of dissent to Trump on Greenland and Venezuela.
• A handful of Republican senators are mulling votes to restrict the administration from any future military actions in Venezuela. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voted for a past Venezuela war powers resolution last year.

Zoom in: "I hate the rhetoric around either acquiring Greenland by purchase or by force," Murkowski told reporters. "It is very, very unsettling."

• "We should not be threatening to take Greenland either by force or by purchase. It's just completely inappropriate," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said.
• "I'm sick of stupid," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said on the Senate floor today. "I want good advice for this president... And this nonsense on what's going on with Greenland is a distraction from the good work he's doing."
• "Threats and intimidation by U.S. officials over American ownership of Greenland are as unseemly as they are counterproductive," Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

— Stef Kight