DHS Shutdown Due To Lack Of Funding

Maeve Bidonde, Arts Editor

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down due to a pause in funding. The pause in funding is because of a battle concerning the oversight of federal immigration officers. The shutdown began after Democrats in Congress and President Trump’s team could not reach a deal in regards to legislation that would fund the department through September. The battle started when Trump met the Democratic request to strip the DHS funding from a bigger funding package to give more time for DHS funding to be debated.

According to AP News Democrats demand changes in the way immigration operations are to happen after federal officers fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January. There have also been calls for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to step down from her role, and Democrats have stood firm on their stance not to pass any funding packages unless their demands are met. They also demand for ICE agents to be mandated to wear body cameras and to necessitate judicial warrants for arrests on private property. 

Tom Homan, The White House Border Czar has come forward to say that the administration was not going to comply with the demands for ICE agents to remove face masks, clearly identify themselves, and have unique display ID numbers during immigration operations. Despite the shutdown, ICE operations can continue due to Trump’s tax and spending cut law that came to be in 2025. That law saw an additional billions of dollars funneled to those agencies that can be used for deportation operations. 

According to The Hill, Kristi Noem posted on X about the spill in the Potomac River but not without taking the opportunity to criticize the Democrats for the funding pause. “Even as Democrat politicians shut us down and these men and women go without pay, DHS is committed to providing much needed aid to the Americans impacted by this disaster, we will not let our citizens suffer without help.”

Noem’s DHS has been in the headlines for several missteps with deportation operations including mistakenly deporting Kilmar Albrego Garcia to El Salvador, despite being told not to because of threats of violence towards Garcia and his family from a rival gang. They also are responsible for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in their most recent stop in Minneapolis. Now the DHS needs funding votes from Democrats whose demands might prevent any other deaths or mistakes in the future. 

Politico reports that DHS already had $170 billion to fund an expansion of the infrastructure of the nation’s deportation and border enforcement. Now DHS wants an extra $64.4 billion from the $150 billion that remains unused from the spending bill that was passed over the summer. $10 billion of the $64.4 billion is delegated for ICE alone in the proposal for more funds. 

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary told reporters “We hope the Democrats get serious very soon because Americans are going to be impacted by this.” On the other side, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries previewed a strategy focused on distributing funds to DHS agencies except for ICE and Customs and Border Control. 

They also plan to make a point of illustrating how much funding DHS has already received from the bill last year and where those funds went. Jeffries said “Trump’s big ugly bill cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and gave $75 billion to ICE.” He also mentioned that if they get nowhere Democrats will begin to figure out what agencies besides ICE and CBP they can fund when Congress returns February 23rd.