The Department of Homeland Security’s funding lapsed Saturday, launching the government into a partial shutdown as lawmakers struggle to negotiate Senate Democrats’ demands for immigration enforcement reform.
Various agencies under the department, such as the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) are without funding as Democrats demand changes within Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). TSA agents began working without pay Saturday morning, and Congress is not slated to return to Washington until next week.
The Senate Democrats’ push for reforms follow the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month, and their exhaustive list of reforms released on Feb. 4 which many Republicans widely declared to be off the table. The list includes prohibiting ICE agents from wearing masks, requiring agents to obtain judicial warrants and blocking immigration enforcement from polling centers, churches and schools.
“Americans are tired of masked agents conducting warrantless operations in their communities — secret police,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “They’re tired of chaos, secrecy and zero accountability. That is not what law and order looks like, and Republicans simply cannot pretend that this outrage does not exist.”
Meanwhile, ICE and CBP will largely go unaffected by the shutdown since Trump’s One Big, Beautiful Bill Act allocated $75 billion for ICE and $65 billion for CBP over multiple years. Border czar Tom Homan also signaled Thursday that immigration enforcement officers would still continue the DHS’s investigation into the fraud allegations surrounding Minnesota’s social services programs.
Congress has also appropriated funds for other departments, such as the Transportation Department, meaning air traffic controllers will not be directly affected by the shutdown. However, about 95% of the TSA’s roughly 60,000 employees must work during the standoff, and many TSA agents experienced financial stress from last year’s record-breakingshutdown.
Multiple states are also waiting on FEMA funds that the shutdown is straining. The lapse in funding will also disrupttraining for first responders at the National Disaster and emergency Management University in Maryland, and some workers will be furloughed.
Schumer warned of a shutdown’s consequences for TSA and FEMA in September 2023.
“If there’s a shutdown, TSA could be thrown into chaos, meaning possible delays and disruption for all fliers,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Border enforcement agencies would be undermined, and even FEMA’s disaster relief fund could actually dry up. We don’t need to go through any of this.”
Multiple DHS officials warned lawmakers on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security last week about the shutdown’s impacts on various agencies.
“FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund has sufficient balances to continue emergency response activities for the foreseeable future,” Gregg Phillips, the associate administrator of FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery, said at the hearing. “That said, if a catastrophic disaster occurred, the DRF will be seriously strained.”
Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, also cautioned the subcommittee about impacts on air travel.
“Many [TSA officers] work paycheck to paycheck trying to support themselves and their families. During a shutdown, the ability to pay for rent, bills, groceries, child care, and gas just to get to work becomes very challenging, leading to increased unscheduled absences as a shutdown progresses,” McNeill said. “Higher callouts can result in longer wait times at checkpoints, leading to missed or delayed flights, which has a cascading negative impact on the American economy.”
U.S. Travel, Airlines for America and the American Hotel Association on Friday released a joint statement highlighting how air travel would be impacted by the DHS funding lapse.
“Funding uncertainties create lasting damage to the entire travel ecosystem, especially the airlines, hotels and thousands of small businesses the travel industry supports,” the groups wrote. “It also stifles recruitment, retention, preparedness and modernization efforts.”
The White House, alongside Republican Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, have led negotiations for Republicans, and Senate Democrats recently rejected a proposal from the White House. If a deal is struck during Congress’ 10-day recess, legislators would receive 24 hours’ notice to return to the Capitol.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters last week Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are “afraid of their shadows” and “don’t want to make a deal at all.”
“I think they want to litigate, have the issue as a political issue,” Thune said. “Whether or not they want a solution, it remains to be seen.”
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