Does Either Party Really Want to End the DHS Shutdown? |
The Department of Homeland Security shutdown will reach its 40th day tomorrow, and it seems this partisan dispute over immigration enforcement cannot be resolved. It began when Democrats refused to fund the department unless the Trump administration instituted a series of reforms restricting ICE and Border Patrol agents from committing the sort of atrocities that terrorized Minneapolis and other cities last winter. Republicans seemed open to a few small token “guardrails” for federal agents, but they insisted on all-or-nothing DHS funding. So the department’s non-immigration functions — like TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard — are essentially being held hostage.
As concerns about TSA shortages and possible Iran war–related terrorist activity grew, Senate Democrats pushed to separate immigration-enforcement funding from the rest of DHS. Critical departments could reopen, but immigration-related agencies (which are flush with cash from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act) would technically remain defunded.........