Partial government shutdown looms over US Homeland Security Department

WASHINGTON

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) faces a partial government shutdown after Congress failed to approve funding for the agency by a deadline Friday.

DHS is now the only federal agency without funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, which continues through Sept. 30, while lawmakers have already approved spending bills covering the rest of the government since the record-long shutdown ended in November.

The latest funding measure, passed at the end of January, provided DHS with a two-week extension to allow Congress additional time to negotiate changes to the agency’s immigration enforcement practices -- a stipulation pushed by Senate Democrats following the killing of two Americans by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the state of Minnesota in January.

On Thursday, the upper chamber failed to advance a measure to fund the department and lawmakers in both chambers left Washington without any deal.

A total of 16 agencies fall under DHS, including the Coast Guard, FEMA and the US Secret Service. Two of the agencies that have stoked Democratic furor amid President Donald Trump's migrant crackdown -- ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) -- are unlikely to suffer any major operational effects from a partial shutdown.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that "dramatic changes" are needed at the DHS in terms of ICE and CBP.

"ICE needs to be dramatically reformed. Period. Full stop," Jeffries stressed.

When asked if the Democrats want a direct meeting with Trump to try to close the deal, Jeffries said they have not called for a direct meeting "at this point."

"But again, we're ready to sit down with anyone, anytime, anyplace, if they are serious about the types of dramatic reforms that are necessary to get ICE under control," he said.

Democrats and Republicans have been discussing potential changes to ICE and CBP, but so far, the two parties have not reached a consensus.

Trump said Friday that negotiations with the Democrats are progressing on a funding agreement for the department.

“We’ll see what happens. We always have to protect our law enforcement. They have done a great job,” Trump told reporters.

Democrats have insisted on stronger oversight and tighter limits on immigration enforcement -- including banning the use of masks by officers, requiring body cameras to remain on, and mandating visible identification -- as a condition for supporting the funding bill.

"I know what they want; I know what they can live with," Trump said, adding that Democrats "have gone crazy. They're radical left lunatics. That's why their cities are so unsafe."