The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is on course for an official shutdown at midnight after lawmakers left Washington for a long weekend without resolving an impasse over the much-criticized agency’s funding.
A range of services, including domestic flights and the US Coastguard, could be vulnerable to disruption after the Senate failed on Thursday to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the DHS appropriations bill. Democrats blocked the funding in protest over violent tactics used in the Trump administration’s recent immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
The Senate fell almost entirely along party lines in a 52-47 vote on the legislation, with John Fetterman of Pennsylvania being the sole Democratic exception in backing the bill. Democrats also blocked an attempt to temporarily extend funding for two weeks at current levels.
Driven by the fatal shootings of two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, at the hands of federals agents, Democrats demanded radical reforms to how agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) – which both fall under DHS’s remit – operate.
While agreeing to agents wearing body cameras, Republicans have resisted other proposals, including demands that agents obtain judicial warrants, signed by a judge, before entering private property.
Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate, accused the Republicans of choosing “chaos”.
“They need to negotiate in good faith, produce legislation that actually reins in ICE and stops the violence,” he said on Thursday.
Before Thursday’s vote, Tom Homan, the US border czar, announced that the administration was winding down “Operation Metro Surge” and that the number of ICE agents in Minnesota would return to normal levels. Homan recently took over leadership of the operation from Greg Bovino, a senior border patrol official who was in charge when federal agents killed Good and Pretti.
Although senators were reported to be on standby to return to vote if agreement is reached, a weekend resolution seemed unlikely, as several members have left the US to attend the Munich security conference in Germany.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives – which passed the appropriations bill on 22 January and another short-term continuing resolution on 3 February to keep the DHS funded and avert a partial shutdown – are scheduled to be in recess for the next 10 days to coincide with President’s Day next Monday, making an extended shutdown a possibility.
It is unlikely to affect ICE and CBP operations, which are deemed vital and already have extensive funding thanks to Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill”, passed last summer.
Instead, disruption is likely to fall on services such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
TSA workers, who include airport security staff and baggage handlers, are expected to continue working over the weekend without pay, to minimize the travel disruption that marked last year’s 43-day government shutdown, the longest in US history. Many Fema workers are expected to be furloughed without pay, limiting its ability to work with local and state partners. Officials have warned that the funding lapse could impede the agency’s ability to respond to natural disasters.
The shutdown will be the second partial government shutdown this month. At the end of January, Congress failed to pass a package of five appropriations bills, triggering a four-day shutdown that ended when lawmakers agreed to fund every agency until the end of the fiscal year except DHS, which they extended for two weeks.
Sara Braun contributed reporting
