As Congress comes back together this week, one question looms large: Will Democrats and Republicans reach a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before the February 13 deadline to avoid a partial shutdown? As time slips away and negotiations flounder, the answer seems to be “no.”
When the time comes, will DHS actually shut down – and wouldn’t that be a satisfactory outcome for those calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to be defunded? As is almost always the case with the government, it isn’t that simple.
Senators Skidding Toward Shutdown
The House passed the full-year funding bills for everything but the DHS on February 3, and President Donald Trump signed the package into law not long after, ending a brief partial shutdown and removing any department but Homeland Security out of the conversation for the year. DHS, on the other hand, is very much in question, as the continuing resolution expires on February 13, and it doesn’t seem senators – or representatives in the House, for that matter – are any closer to a deal than they were a week ago.
Today, senators in both parties expect the deadline to come and go without any additional funding passed for DHS, kicking off another partial shutdown starting February 14. Happy Valentine’s Day, eh?
Democrats released a list of demands to both their Republican colleagues and the general public. As Liberty Nation News’ Kelli Ballard recently reported, the ten-point list of requirements the GOP must sign off on to get Democrats on board to fund the department included things like forbidding masks and requiring the use of bodycams, among many others. For the most part, the list is precisely the restrictions that many local and state police officers already face. At present, about 12 states require the use of bodycams, for example, any time police engage with the public.
Republicans (most of them, anyway) argue that these restrictions are unnecessary, unjustified, and that they impose an added level of danger to the job while also making it harder to perform. In short, the ten-item list of demands is a nonstarter. And with Republicans refusing to acquiesce and Democrats refusing to pass any funding until they do, it’s simply unreasonable at this point to expect anything but a partial shutdown.
“We’ve got a – now – one-week-and-one-day time frame in which to do this, which is entirely unrealistic,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told his fellow senators on the floor when last they met to discuss the matter. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) called the list of proposed reforms “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands for the press.”
When asked about his level of optimism that a deal can be cobbled together before February 13, Sen. John Kennedy’s (R-LA) response was “about a minus squillion.”
“This is not about reforming DHS,” Kennedy added. “This is about the Karen wing of the Democratic Party that wants to defund ICE, just like they wanted to defund the police.” Kennedy also doubts Democrats would pass a funding bill even if the GOP caved and gave them every request in the letter because “the Karen wing of the party would punish them.”
The Reality of a Shutdown – It May Not Mean What You Think
But this raises a question: If Democrats want to defund ICE and CBP, isn’t forcing DHS into a shutdown a win? That might seem to be the commonsense answer, but it’s wrong nonetheless.
A quick gander at the DHS organizational chart reveals just how much more falls under the department. ICE, CBP, and various other immigration agencies and offices fall under Homeland Security, of course, but there’s also the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
What’s more, ICE and CBP wouldn’t actually be negatively affected by this shutdown. Yes, you read that right: While TSA and FEMA would suspend some operations and furlough workers, causing longer lines for trains and planes, as well as potentially leaving the US government unprepared to address disaster recovery in a timely manner, it wouldn’t actually result in any ICE or CBP agents leaving the field.
Not only do most law enforcement and military personnel have to work through a shutdown, whether they get paid or not, but in this case, CBP and ICE won’t even run out of money any time soon. The bill Democrats are currently refusing to pass would have appropriated about $10 billion for ICE – but the One Big Beautiful Bill Act already funded ICE and CBP to the tune of $75 billion and $65 billion, respectively. Even without a full-year funding bill for DHS, ICE and CBP are fully funded and then some for several years – while FEMA, TSA, the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard, among others, run out of money.
“The Senate is debating another $10B for ICE,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said in a post on X. “But Congress already locked in nearly $19B a year for four years. Even if this fails, ICE will still have about 87% more funding than last year.”
And the crazy thing is that Democrats know this, too. The office of Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the top appropriator in the Senate for her party, said in a bill summary last week: “Congress’ failure to pass a Homeland Security appropriations bill would not shut down ICE or CBP.” It would, she argued, instead “allow ICE and CBP to continue their operations with OBBBA funds – but without any of the constraints imposed by an enacted funding bill – while FEMA, TSA, CISA, Coast Guard, and other DHS components are shuttered, or working without pay.”
“ICE would be able to sustain regular operations for multiple years,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), “while the other agencies under this bill would likely be forced to furlough workers and reduce operations.”
Still, they push on as a matter of principle. “But we all saw another American shot and killed in broad daylight,” Murray said in an X post on Sunday. “There must be accountability, and we must keep pushing Republicans to work with us to rein in DHS.” She argues that “Americans must be eyes wide open that blocking the DHS funding bill will not shut down ICE.”
Still, legislators on both sides worry about shutting down FEMA, TSA, and the Coast Guard, even temporarily. In favor of avoiding that, some Democrats are suggesting a measure to fund specifically those agencies and others directly, skipping over ICE and CBP. That, however, did not exactly receive a warm welcome from the GOP. The shutdown, such that it is, seems inevitable – as does mass outrage among progressives once it happens and the average left-wing American discovers that the two DHS agencies they so hate aren’t affected by it.
