Senate Funding Vote, ICE Family Detention Protest, Fed Holds Interest Rates
Up First from NPR
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4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 29 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Senate Democrats are threatening a partial government shutdown unless Republicans agree to new limits on immigration enforcement by Friday's deadline.
A protest at an ICE family detention center in South Texas turned confrontational as demonstrators demanded the release of a five-year-old boy and his father taken from Minnesota and held at the facility hundreds of miles away.
And despite pressure from President Trump to lower interest rates, the Federal Reserve is holding steady to fight lingering inflation and rising prices.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Kelsey Snell, Susanna Capelouto, Rafael Nam, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Alice Woelfle.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas, Ava Pukatch and Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Stacey Abbott.
Our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.
(0:00) Introduction
(01:58) Senate Funding Vote
(05:41) ICE Family Detention Protest
(10:28) Fed Holds Interest Rates
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Senator Chuck Schumer threatens a partial government shutdown. |
| 0:05.6 | Senate Democrats are united. |
| 0:07.9 | We need to rain in ice and end the violence. |
| 0:10.6 | They'll block Homeland Security funding until there are limits on immigration agents. |
| 0:14.6 | I'm Steve Inskeep with Laila Faddle, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:20.6 | A protest outside an ICE family detention center in South Texas turned chaotic after police in riot gear appeared. |
| 0:28.7 | Demonstrators demand the release of five-year-old Liam Ramos, who was detained with his father hundreds of miles away in Minnesota. |
| 0:35.1 | And despite pressure from President Trump, |
| 0:40.4 | the Federal Reserve is holding interest rates steady as prices keep climbing and more people see layoffs. |
| 0:44.3 | The best thing we can do for people who are feeling that squeeze |
| 0:47.1 | is to keep inflation under control. |
| 0:49.5 | Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. |
| 1:09.8 | Senate Democrats say they're going to block a government funding package that includes money for the Department of Homeland Security until there are reforms to how immigration agents are working in this country. |
| 1:14.4 | Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke with reporters in the Capitol yesterday. |
| 1:22.5 | Senate Democrats are united on a set of common sense and necessary policy goals that we need to rain in ice and end the violence. Either lawmakers make some agreement or there will be another partial government |
| 1:28.6 | shut down at the end of the day on Friday. NPR congressional correspondent Claudia Grisades has |
| 1:33.0 | been following this and joins us now. Good morning, Claudia. Good morning, Leila. Okay, so this |
| 1:38.3 | same package passed with significant bipartisan support last week in the House, but then we saw |
| 1:43.4 | the killing of Alex |
| 1:44.4 | Pready over the weekend in Minneapolis by federal agents. So how did that change what we expect to |
| 1:49.6 | happen in the Senate? Well, in some ways it changed everything. The Senate is supposed to vote today |
| 1:54.9 | to advance this $1.3 trillion package. It's a six-bill package and one of those funds, DHS. Well, the other five |
... |
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