WASHINGTON — Funding for the Department of Homeland Security ran out Friday evening after House Democrats and the White House once again failed to come to an agreement about how to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement, triggering a partial shutdown with no clear path to resolution.
With both chambers out of session until next week, formal negotiations have effectively stalled. Lawmakers from both parties have signaled little urgency to return to Washington before the recess ends, raising the likelihood that the shutdown will stretch past the end of the week.
This third government shutdown in five months appears to reflect a view among Congressional Democrats that their political leverage has grown since the shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota this year. The party has rejected funding DHS without some regulations on how the department operates.
Thomas Kahn, a distinguished faculty fellow at American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, said recent anti-ICE protests in Minnesota and across the country would help Democrats win popular support in this funding battle.
“Democrats are banking on the fact that the public will be with them in requiring much stricter enforcement and limitations on ICE and Border Patrol’s behavior,” Kahn said. “I’m not sure that the funding level will change, but I think that ultimately what will happen is there will be much stricter guidelines.”
The lapse in funding came after a short-term extension expired Friday at midnight, ending a 10-day window lawmakers had given themselves to negotiate changes to ICE’s $10 billion appropriation package. Democratic leaders had demanded 10 reforms to curb the agency’s enforcement surge, while Republicans refused to decouple ICE funding from the broader roughly $65 billion homeland security package.
Rep. Sheri Biggs, R-S.C., said Monday on Fox News that House Republicans have “no intention to cave” to the Democrats’ demands, which include requirements for ICE agents to obtain judicial warrants, stop wearing face coverings and wear body cameras while on duty.
“This is just another part by the Democrats to be playing theatrical games at the American people’s expense,” Biggs told Fox News.
Democrats also seem unlikely to budge.
“ICE is out of control. Republican extremists refuse to rein them in. Democrats will hold the line until dramatic change occurs,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., wrote on X Friday morning.
A DHS shutdown pauses only nonessential operations, though border security and immigration enforcement personnel will continue working without pay. DHS has more than 260,000 employees — around 90% of whom are classified as essential — including TSA agents, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service.
While Congressional negotiations are at a standstill, Democrats and the White House have been wrangling about how ICE operates.
Congressional Democrats late Monday evening sent their latest counteroffer to the White House on overhauling ICE operations. They did not specify what the offer detailed. Party leaders have said they will work with Republicans to fund DHS as long as they agree to the Democrats’ reforms.
Republicans seem to be receptive to requiring agents to wear body cameras. The original appropriations bill the House passed last month included a $20 million provision for “the procurement, deployment, and operations of body-worn cameras for agents and officers performing enforcement activities.”
But body cameras seem to be the only point of bipartisan agreement. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Fox News last week that he would not support requiring ICE agents to obtain judicial warrants.
“If you put a judicial warrant in the way, it will impede the entire process,” Johnson said. “That is not what the American people voted for.”
However, according to an early February PBS poll, two-thirds of Americans say ICE enforcement has gone too far. A majority said that ICE is making Americans less safe.
On Tuesday, amid the partial government shutdown, Politico reported that Tricia McLaughlin, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s spokesperson, said she would step down from her role next week. McLaughlin was widely considered DHS’s top spokesperson and most vocal defender.
Both chambers are expected to return from recess on Monday.