A month into the partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — thanks in no small part to separating DHS funding from the rest of the government combined with an unwillingness to address Senate filibuster rules — there have been two Islamist terror attacks on U.S. soil in Austin, Texas and New York City as the war in Iran rages on.
Founded in 2002 in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 by al Qaeda, who boarded jets to fly them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security’s purposes were set forth in the Homeland Security Act of 2002, to “prevent terrorist attacks within the United States; … reduce the vulnerability of the United States to terrorism; … [and] minimize the damage, and assist in the recovery, from terrorist attacks that do occur within the United States…”
But right now, the Department is mostly unfunded, impacting not just DHS’ explicit counterterrorism mission, but also the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The resulting staff shortages at these critical transportation hubs have already produced hours-long security lines, and without a quick resolution flights will face mounting delays and possible cancellations.
Democrats would like to hold it up because they want to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol to undermine President Donald Trump’s policies that deport illegal aliens and secure the southern border pursuant to federal law.
And so, Democrats’ latest proposal is to once again isolate funding, this time within the Department itself — that is, fund everything but ICE and the Border Patrol, so Democrats can run out the clock on the fiscal year. In the meantime, ICE and Border Patrol are two of the agencies that received additional funds in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and so were paid during the last shutdown and are getting paid during the current shutdown.
In other words, the agencies Democrats’ are targeting for defunding are already fully funded, and so the partial shutdown simply impacts all of the other agencies of the Department.
Democrats are pursuing this strategy precisely because it is actually harmless — to them. With ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection already fully funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they don’t have to get their hands dirty by casting a direct vote to gut border enforcement.
Instead, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) can effectively carve those agencies out, let the rest of DHS (TSA, counterterrorism, etc.) twist in the wind, creating public inconveniences at airports and blame it all on President Trump — and quietly run down the extra funds Congressional Republicans and Trump fought for in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
It’s a long game. Democrats are planning on winning the House in the November Congressional midterms, and so by the time they get around to crafting legislation, the extra funds for Homeland Security will be exhausted sooner than originally planned.
All of which might have been avoided by consolidating DHS with the rest of the government’s funding, which ceded much of the leverage Republicans would have had in a full shutdown scenario.
Congress didn’t even separate all twelve appropriations bills. Instead, there were still three consolidated minibuses: 1) H.R. 6938 that funded the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Science Foundation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service and the Indian Health Service; 2) H.R. 7148 that funded the Department of Defense, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Treasury, the Executive Office of the President, the judiciary, the District of Columbia, the Department of State and related programs, the administration and oversight of foreign assistance programs, bilateral economic assistance, international security assistance, multilateral assistance and export and investment assistance; and 3) H.R. 5371 that funded the Department of Agriculture, the legislative Branch, military construction and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Those all became law on Jan. 23, Feb. 3 and Nov. 12, 2025, respectively. DHS funding was separated from what became H.R. 7148 following the death of Renee Good who was shot after she drove her vehicle into an ICE officer in Minnesota on Jan. 7.
That leaves President Trump and Congressional Republicans with a choice: Leave DHS shutdown entirely or just accept funding for all agencies except for ICE and Border Patrol, effectively allowing Democrats to drain the additional funds that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, about $140 billion, set up.
If Republicans cave, it will drain about $28 billion of the extra funds they had added to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: $10 billion for ICE and $18 billion for Border Patrol that is currently being blocked in the DHS funding bill. Instead those funds have to come out of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s funding — because Republicans allowed DHS funding to be separated in the first place.
Democrats are up in almost all of the generic Congressional ballot polls by an average of 4.7 points, and so there’s no pressure publicly for them to work with the President to secure the border or remove illegal aliens. That equation did not change in the slightest during the last government full government shutdown last year, the longest in history. They’re not paying a political price.
Now, all Democrats have to do is run out the clock on the fiscal year, the extra funds get drained, get to September 30, shut down the government again, and then after the elections in November, just do nothing, let the Republican majority in the House run out of time and then push their further demands in January, which undoubtedly could result in further drain downs of what was supposed to be additional funding for border security and deportations.
Democrats won’t fund the Department of Homeland Security because they don’t think they need to — because Republicans gave away almost all of their leverage. Now, there’s just long lines at the airport, and Democrats believe they won’t be blamed until the polls tell them otherwise.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
