Headed into the 2026 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) partial shutdown, Democrats were demanding judicial warrants for immigration enforcement, no more masking for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers, a use of force standard and a bar on alleged racial profiling.
Now, there is a deal in discussion where none of things will happen, DHS will be funded minus ICE which was already funded via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and which will be further funded in another budget reconciliation bill.
40 days of long lines at airports, a deadly airplane accident at highly congested LaGuardia Airport in New York and four Islamist terrorist attacks while DHS was hampered all so… Democrats wouldn’t have to vote to fund ICE and face their radical wing in primaries.
None of Democrats’ actual demands were met, so once again it was all a waste of time.
This of course was all highly predictable. In 2025, the longest shutdown in history of 43 days was Democrats fighting for expanded Obamacare premium tax credits and we got to the end of the shutdown, and those were not included in the final resolution.
In 2018 and 2019, President Donald Trump wanted Congress to fund the border wall, we had another long shutdown of 35 days, and at the end of it, Congress did not fund the border wall and the President had to instead declare a national emergency and reprogram military funding to get the wall built.
In 2013, Republicans shut down the government to defund Obamacare, as if then-President Barack Obama was ever going to sign a bill defunding his signature legislative achievement, and after 16 days at the end of it, Obamacare was not defunded.
In 1995 and 1996, then-President Bill Clinton was vetoing Republican budget proposals and ultimately, the shutdown ended after 21 days with an appropriations package that more resembled Clinton’s preferred budget priorities, where the big cuts were not made to Medicare and Medicaid. Years later, the budget was balanced, not because of any shutdown, but because Congress instead worked with the President to get it done.
Shutdowns don’t work, but they’ll keep happening because there is very little downside to them politically.
Democrats think the 2026 Congressional midterms are in the bag, and so there is very little incentive for them to work with President Trump and Republicans.
The lesson, if there is one, might be for President Trump and Congressional Republicans to look at the next reconciliation bill and prefund all their priorities through the remainder of 2028.
Then, even if Democrats do well in the midterms, it won’t matter because they won’t be able to hold border and ICE funding, or Department of War funding for that matter if it’s necessary for the current war effort in Iran, hostage in 2027 and 2028. The precedent was already set in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
So, preempt the inevitable 2027 and 2028 shutdowns and just fill everything up to the rim if this is the way things are going to be. Politically, these disputes appear to matter very little to the outcome of elections, so Congress might as well do what is necessary to protect the country while there are majorities to do so.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
