Democrats Block DHS Funding Ahead Of Partial Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON ― Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation funding for the Department of Homeland Security, holding firm in their demands for reforms to the conduct of federal immigration agents following the death of two American citizens in Minnesota last month.

The failed 52-47 vote, short of the 60 votes needed to advance, means parts of the Department of Homeland Security will shut down Friday at midnight, absent a last-minute deal between both parties and the Trump administration.

“Americans are crystal clear on how they feel about ICE – the status quo cannot continue,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor. “We hear it from people back home and all over the country. People are angry. They’re afraid. They want accountability and an end to the chaos. The White House and Congressional Republicans must listen and deliver.”

Schumer said the Trump administration’s announcement on Thursday that it is withdrawing federal immigration agents from Minneapolis doesn’t change the need to codify reforms to their practices across the country. And he dismissed an offer this week from the White House for some changes to immigration policies as unserious and insufficient.

A lapse in funding at DHS won’t mean that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol, the two agencies spearheading President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, will shut down, however. The agencies have their own funding stream set up by President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans passed last year. Meanwhile, other agencies under DHS, like the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration will likely experience disruptions, though some federal workers will be deemed essential and stay on the job.

“You’re penalizing a TSA agent, a TSA agent is going to go without a paycheck,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) said in a speech directed at her Democratic colleagues on Thursday. “Why? So you can posture politically. I’m over it.”

But Democrats downplayed the impact of a DHS shutdown in the short term, noting that Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill included $170 billion for ICE and CBP, as well as another $20 billion for other DHS priorities.

“The odds that in the next two weeks, anyone will go without a paycheck? Zero,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told HuffPost.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said he hoped that interacting with the public during next week’s congressional recess would help change the minds of Republican lawmakers, who have so far been dug in against many of Democrats’ demands, such as unmasking federal agents and requiring that they identify themselves when in the field.

“The Republicans are in a bubble and do not understand the depth of the anger out there in the world, and maybe this break will allow them to go home and get yelled at,” Schatz said. “It’s going to take them maybe another week to figure out how pissed off their own voters are about the idea of masked police force terrorizing communities.”