Spanish
The United States Congress is going through its third day of a partial government shutdown after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement to restore federal funding. The main point of conflict centers on the budget and operating conditions of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is blocking negotiations.
The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, expressed his confidence that the situation could be resolved in the short term and maintained that the reopening of the government could materialize in a matter of days. However, his room for maneuver is very limited due to the narrow Republican majority, which became even more fragile after the incorporation of a new Democratic legislator recently elected in Texas.
Negotiations face strong resistance within the Republican Party itself. A conservative sector opposes any project that includes changes in the funding or operational rules of the DHS, considering that accepting these modifications would imply yielding to the demands of the opposition. From that space, they also accuse the Democrats of using the conflict as a political tool to pressure the government.
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The core of the disagreement is linked to the proposed reforms for federal immigration agencies, especially the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Political pressure increased after the deaths of two people during federal operations in the city of Minneapolis in less than a month, events that rekindled the debate on the use of force and detention procedures.
Following those episodes, Democrats announced they will not support any initiative to fund the DHS if a package of mandatory reforms is not approved. Among the demands are the permanent use of body cameras by agents, the prohibition of covering their faces during operations, and the obligation to have a prior judicial order to detain migrants.
Democratic leaders maintain that the overall compromises are not enough and that the reforms must take effect immediately to resolve the conflict. Some Republicans admit to being willing to accept measures such as the use of body cameras, but reject other demands, such as the ban on balaclavas and the requirement for judicial warrants for arrests on public roads, arguing reasons of security and current legal framework.
The lack of consensus put on hold a transitional funding scheme that had been approved by the Senate. That plan contemplated the approval of several projects to finance most federal agencies until September, along with a temporary extension for the DHS while negotiations on immigration policy continued.
Faced with the risk of the vote failing due to internal divisions, Johnson acknowledged the need to build support outside his party and called for a willingness to dialogue from both political forces.
Although the partial shutdown has been going on for several days, for the moment, an immediate impact as severe as that of previous budget paralysis is not foreseen, when hundreds of thousands of federal employees were sent on unpaid leave or had to continue working without pay until funding was restored.
