The Department of Homeland Security shut down this weekend after lawmakers failed to reach a funding agreement, leaving thousands of employees facing missed paychecks. While Congress approved full-year fiscal 2026 funding on February 3 for every other federal agency, Democrats withheld support for DHS, demanding reforms to President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdown following fatal shootings involving department personnel.
Roughly 92 percent of DHS employees are still working, but about 23,000 of nearly 250,000 are expected to be furloughed. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection can draw on funding from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, so the shutdown will not affect the Trump administration’s deportation efforts or border security.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) outlined demands including banning masks for DHS officers, mandating body cameras and requiring third-party warrants for home entries. Republicans rejected several of the proposals. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said that employees of the DHS are “critical to the functioning of our federal government” and “shouldn’t be held hostage in a government shutdown.”
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