White House plays hardball with Democrats over DHS shutdown

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White House plays hardball with Democrats over DHS shutdown

The White House is playing hardball in the battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), suspending the Global Entry program for international travelers and threatening to do the same for TSA PreCheck.

That has infuriated Democrats, who are accusing the administration of inflicting unnecessary pain on the American public as a negotiating tactic. Administration officials, meanwhile, say the moves are necessary as the agency’s funding lapse stretches into an 11th day.

Negotiations over DHS funding have shown little progress as Democrats dig in their heels on their demands to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the latest moves could be a sign the White House is ready to make matters painful in an attempt to shake loose a deal.

“I expect we’ll see more of these kinds of applications of pressure in the days to come. I’m not so sure Democrats are going to feel the heat, but I assume they’re going to make some more moves,” said Jim Manley, an ex-top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and former Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). “It’s still relatively targeted and not the typical kind of smash mouth you come to expect out of this administration.”

Manley also said the only question is whether the forthcoming administration moves are low-impact or more acute.

The administration’s announcement also arrived alongside announcements that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has paused “non-emergency recovery work” and that lawmakers will no longer be given courtesy airport escorts.

The DHS will also be required to approve all travel for FEMA employees, even if the travel is funded through an account of disaster money that’s separate from appropriations that have lapsed.

Democrats say the moves are unnecessary and harmful to travelers.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) highlighted that the administration did not take these types of measures during the record-setting, 43-day shutdown last fall.

“Everyone knows Donald Trump and DHS use bullying tactics — this is another one of them. The Trump administration is choosing to inflict pain on the public instead of adopting common sense ICE reforms,” Schumer said in a statement. “Democrats are fighting against this exact kind of abuse.”

Democrats were also quick to note the White House was forced to backtrack on the planned suspension of PreCheck within hours. PreCheck had 20 million active members as of August 2024, according to the DHS.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee’s aviation subcommittee, told The Hill that air travelers and airlines over the weekend “were understandably shocked by the chaotic, poorly-coordinated” actions surrounding the two travel programs.

“Yet again, the Trump Administration has proven that its instinct is to punish the American people rather than work to solve the nation’s problem,” Duckworth said in a statement.

Air travel has long been viewed as a key pressure point that could help bring government shutdowns to an end, so the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is being watched especially closely as its employees work without pay.

A sick-out by air traffic controllers in 2019 effectively brought an end to what is now the second-longest shutdown in history.

Although air traffic controllers were funded in a separate package, there remains concern about TSA workers not showing up en masse if the shutdown imperils the end-of-the-week paycheck that is on the chopping block.

“If it does happen, it will cause major delays and a major loss, again, for the airlines,” one GOP senator said.

The administration’s guidelines come as they struggle to push Democrats off their markers in negotiations. Democrats have demanded reforms to ICE as a condition of funding the DHS since federal immigration authorities shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis last month.

The White House on Sunday distributed talking points to congressional offices detailing the actions taken by officials in Minneapolis since border czar Tom Homan took over operational control of ICE and border agents.

“The Border Czar has assessed the status of operational command and activities, conducted extensive external stakeholder outreach, and determined de-escalatory solutions and improvements that ultimately achieved the President’s goals,” the White House said before listing 11 bullet points laying out changes in practices on the ground in the city.

Those include equipping agents with body cameras and requiring federal officers to “clearly display their badge and other adequate law enforcement identifiers” while carrying out operations.

The enhanced operations in Minneapolis came to an end on Feb. 12.

Democratic negotiators, meanwhile, issued their first counter-proposal to the White House last week, with Republicans dismissing it as a rehash of their initial list of demands.

Headlining that list were calls for immigration agents in the field to be unmasked and to conduct themselves like other national and local law enforcement agencies, and to tighten warrant requirements.

All of those are considered red lines for GOP members.

Republicans have also shown little appetite to acquiesce to the Democratic demands given that ICE is largely unaffected by the DHS shutdown due to the $75 billion in funding for border operations they greenlighted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

On top of the TSA, workers at FEMA, Secret Service and the Coast Guard are in line not to get paid at the end of the week. Roughly 90 percent of DHS workers are deemed essential amid the shutdown, meaning that most operations will continue even as those workers don’t get paid.

The bitter back-and-forth over the shutdown also spilled into public view as Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) accused liberals of not complaining when Mexican cartel members wore masks during attacks over the weekend, having posted one of them blowing up a gas station.

“Mike, I would like ICE to have the same standards as a local police department, not cartel hitmen,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), an ally of leadership, retorted.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) agreed.

“Oh dear Mike. I literally couldn’t make our argument better than you do,” he said. “The bad guys wear masks. The good guys don’t.”

Lee eventually deleted the post.

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