Senate leaders scramble to save bipartisan deal and avoid a partial shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate leaders were scrambling on Friday to save a bipartisan spending deal and prevent a partial government shutdown this weekend as Democrats demanded new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.

Democrats struck a rare deal with President Donald Trump to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broad government spending bill and provide money for that agency for two weeks while Congress debates curbs on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That agreement came after irate Democratsthreatened to block the entire spending bill and trigger a shutdown in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis.

But passage of the package was delayed late Thursday as Senate leaders worked to win support.

“Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening. He encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”