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Congress has a little more than a day to prevent a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security triggered by Republican attempts to stop President Obama's executive actions on immigration.

 
Some Republicans have vowed not to fund the department unless it also blocks the president's actions, which would delay deportations for millions of unauthorized immigrants and allow them to stay in the United States.

 
If that occurs, many of the approximately 1,700 Department of Homeland Security employees in Minnesota doing jobs such as airport screening and immigration enforcement would stay on the job without pay.


 
This standoff over immigration has flipped some of the usual scripts on Capitol Hill, where typically Republicans aim to portray Democrats as soft on terrorism.

 
But with thousands of Homeland Security workers set to go on furlough due to the dispute, the tables have turned.

 
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar and other Democrats are using the purported al-Shabab video encouraging attacks on the Mall of America to suggest Republicans are soft on national security.

 
"I just call on our Republican friends to get this bill done, to get these firefighters funded, to fund our security and not to send a message to al-Shabab that we're just going to shut down Homeland Security," Klobuchar said.
 

Minnesota law enforcement officials say a shutdown of the department would halt the flow of federal money to their agencies, which totaled at least $16 million last year, according to Homeland Security data provided by U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum's office.

 
Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek said he has tapped those funds to pay officers' overtime as a result of the Mall of America threat.

 
"The grants will come to a stop," Stanek said. "We will not be able to access those monies for overtime patrols, other initiatives that we use including community outreach."

 
Stanek said he's been in contact with the state's entire congressional delegation to make clear what consequences a Homeland Security shutdown would have in Hennepin County.

 
Homeland Security officials say more than 80 percent of the department's employees nationwide would work without pay if no deal is reached by midnight Friday.

 
But U.S. Rep. John Kline, a Republican who represents Minnesota's 2nd District, said he anticipates a resolution soon, though possibly not by the Friday deadline.

 
"Protecting the nation's security is paramount. Not paying them for two or three or four or five days, does that destroy America's security? It's those things that I don't know," Kline said. "So I don't know if there's an interim step that we're going to take, I simply don't know. At some point, and I hope not very far down the road, you have to fund the Department of Homeland Security."

 
Republicans are deeply divided on how to proceed.

 
Senate Republicans have abandoned the fight and are pressing for a vote on a Homeland Security funding bill free of immigration-related provisions.

But many House Republicans insist they still want to fight President Obama's executive action through this spending bill.

 
Kline said House Republicans will meet tonight to hash out their differences.

 
One part of the script for such standoffs has stayed constant: Republicans have usually yielded at the last minute. Now that they control both the House and Senate for the first time in Obama's presidency, it's unclear whether they can rewrite that script.

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Congress has a little more than a day to prevent a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security triggered by Republican attempts to stop President Obama's executive actions on immigration.


Homeland Security fight threatens Minnesotans' pay

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