The 2026 partial government shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security ended unceremoniously on April 30 in the House with unanimous passage of H.R. 7147, legislation that had already passed the Senate that funds all agencies in the department except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol.
Other than the fact that Congressional Democrats won’t need to vote for ICE and Border Patrol funding, there were no policy concessions Democrats achieved with the longest shutdown in history totaling 76 days.
No judicial warrants for deportations, no use of force standards, no end to alleged racial profiling and so forth. Nothing they asked for.
And in the DHS funding bill was a Republican-led reform that included $20 million for body cameras for federal agents, which they had offered as a part of a broader package including funding for the agencies, plus de-escalation training for agents, that Democrats rejected in the Senate.
Instead, ICE and Border Patrol will be funded for the rest of the Trump administration through the end of 2028 via another budget reconciliation bill that will include another $70 billion.
Politically, though, this might be one of the most counterproductive shutdowns in history. It taught Republicans not to wait for after the Congressional midterms, and to instead pre-fund Ice and Border Patrol for the next three years in case Democrats win back the House and/or Senate in the November elections.
Therefore, the outcome of the shutdown was Democrats gave up the all-important, constitutional power of the purse over ICE and Border Patrol through 2028. They could have gotten more but instead chose almost nothing — caving to the immediate demand of their radical constituents to just vote no — capping off yet another government shutdown that achieved basically nothing.
In the meantime, President Donald Trump will get to run ICE and Border Patrol the way he wants for the rest of his term of office, regardless of who wins in November.
Even if Democrats had majorities in both houses, there would still be a limit to what they could accomplish without the White House — just as the Constitution’s Framers intended.
And not because there won’t be more shutdowns. Those seem highly likely, but it is still mostly impossible for a political party to impose its will on a sitting president by denying funding unless certain demands are met.
For example, if in 2027, somehow, legislation passed defunding ICE and Border Patrol, President Trump would just veto it, Democrats wouldn’t have the two-thirds majorities needed to overcome the vetoes and it would never become law.
Now, at that point, Democrats might consider just defunding the entire government just by never voting to pass funding.
But the reconciliation bill isn’t finalized yet, and so Republicans should also be considering what constitutes essential funding through 2028. Maybe just pre-fund everything. The bipartisan appropriations process might be as good as dead, but perhaps they’re waiting until 2027 to perform the autopsy. We’ll see. As usual, stay tuned.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government.
