WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats alike are vowing to tank a Homeland Security funding bill ahead of the Friday deadline — which would trigger a partial government shutdown after border patrol shot an armed ICU nurse in Minneapolis Saturday.

The $64.4 billion funding bill had only just squeaked by the House last week in a 220-207 vote, barely overcoming controversy over the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, but now the Saturday shooting of Alex Pretti has seemingly emboldened Senate Democrats to kill it. 

“The Trump Administration and Kristi Noem are putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) said in a statement Saturday. “They are oppressing Americans and are at odds with local law enforcement. This is clearly not about keeping Americans safe, it’s brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants.”

“I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill. We have bipartisan agreement on 96% of the budget,” she added.

Crucially, Cortez Masto was one of three senators — alongside Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Angus King (I-Maine) — who joined Republicans in voting for a clean stopgap measure to fund the government and end the shutdown last year. 

Her Senate Democratic colleagues blocked it for weeks via the filibuster, resulting in a record-breaking 43-day government shutdown. 

The growing opposition to the DHS funding bill from Democrats stems from the shooting of 37-year-old Pretti by a US Customs and Border Patrol agent Saturday. Pretti had been armed with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun, which local authorities say he had a permit to carry.

Multiple officers pinned him to the ground, one of whom was seen on footage removing his firearm. Footage showed an officer holding the weapon with the gun slide moving. Afterwards, officers opened fire on Pretti, shooting him multiple times.

The ordeal sparked outrage and comes after the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good, who had accelerated her vehicle in the direction of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer before he opened fire, killing her.

Senate Democrats, egged on by their House peers such as “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), are hoping to leverage the DHS funding bill to pressure Republicans into making changes to immigration enforcement operations.

Every fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, Congress is tasked with funding the government, which entails the passage of 12 appropriations bills. Congress hasn’t performed this task on time in some three decades; instead, it relies on stopgaps to buy time. 

Last week, the House also passed three appropriations bills to fund Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Education, all of which breezed through the lower chamber in a 341-88 vote. 

Now the Senate, which was on recess last week, has to pass all of those bills, the Homeland Security one, and two others. The other appropriations bills had previously cleared both chambers of Congress. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has also led the charge for his party to rally against the DHS funding bill. 

“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling —and unacceptable in any American city. Democrats sought common-sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE,” Schumer said in a statement. 

“I will vote no,” he added. “Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”

Due to the 60-vote threshold and expected opposition from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Republicans will likely need eight Democrats in order to wrangle the bill through.