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Democrats steadfastly refuse to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without a series of minimal reforms. In response, Republicans have decided to refuse to fund the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS), leaving many Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents without paychecks for a brutal six weeks.
Agents have (understandably) not been showing up for work, leading to hours-long waits and chaos at airports across the country.
Faced with a metastasizing crisis Republicans deliberately inflicted on the country, Democrats held firm. Republicans, for their part, blustered, caved, caved again, blustered more, then swiftly rushed to bludgeon their faces with each other’s fists.
For the Republicans, it was a preposterous and thoroughly damaging spectacle which left TSA still without secure or certain funding, thereby setting up the GOP for further and apparently endless exercises in incompetence and self-humiliation. But for Democrats, it was an object lesson in the ground to be gained if you stake out a strong stance, find your spine, and refuse to abandon either.
Republicans own this
The current partial shutdown battle began at the end of January following the murder of VA nurse Alex Pretti by CBP officers in Minneapolis.
Democrats — from progressives like Connecticut’s Chris Murphy to centrists like Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar — demanded a range of reforms before moving ahead with funding. Those reforms included forcing ICE/CBP to obtain judicial warrants before entering private property, prohibiting DHS agents from wearing masks, and preventing ICE/CBP from operating in medical facilities, schools, childcare facilities, places of worship, or — crucially — polling places.
Many of these demands were basically calls for DHS to simply start following the Constitution, but that was a bridge too far for Republicans. So they insisted they would not pass an ICE/CBP bill with conditions.
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Republicans were probably emboldened by the last shutdown fight. Democrats in late 2025 staged a six-week government shutdown in an effort to restore healthcare subsidies for the Affordable Care Act exchanges. Republicans not only refused to negotiate, but seemed to revel in the escalating harm to veterans, federal workers, and, especially, SNAP beneficiaries after Trump moved to illegally suspend the program. Polls showed Republicans were blamed for the shutdown, but centrist Democrats didn’t have the stomach to continue. They caved in November having won nothing tangible. The base was (rightly) enraged.
This time, Democrats tried a different approach. They agreed to allow passage of all government appropriations bills except for the one funding DHS, which controls ICE and CBP. Narrowly focusing on DHS gave the GOP a lot less leverage — and Democrats even offered to fund all parts of DHS except ICE/CBP.
Republicans refused to break out ICE/CBP, however, hoping to use the shutdown of TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard to force Democrats to back down. That’s been the impasse for weeks, as TSA agents have become more and more desperate and airline security lines have ground to a halt.
But Democrats stood firm, and Republicans have become increasingly desperate. Polls suggest the GOP has been receiving most of the blame for the impasse. Trump’s approval has been slipping dangerously (he’s under 38 percent in the Fiftyplusone tracker) and Republicans are getting embarrassingly clobbered in special elections in even red districts.