DHS Has Been Shut Down for 5 Weeks — and Congress Is Going on Vacation With No Deal in Sight

The Department of Homeland Security has now been operating without congressional funding for more than five weeks, making it the longest partial government shutdown of a single cabinet agency in modern American history — and there is no deal in sight. The funding lapse began February 14, after Congress failed to agree on appropriations for DHS following a brief extension, and it has forced the Transportation Security Administration to operate under emergency protocols, created extended wait times at airports nationwide, and curtailed immigration oversight activities at the southern border.

The shutdown's origins lie in a January 2026 incident in Minnesota in which two ICE agents and two CBP officers were killed in separate confrontations with individuals they were attempting to arrest or deport. The deaths prompted congressional Democrats to demand reforms as a condition of any DHS funding deal: restrictions on warrantless home entries by ICE agents, tighter use-of-force policies, mandatory body cameras for all field agents, and a requirement that agents remove face masks during arrests. Republicans, backed by the Trump administration, have countered that Democrats are using the tragedy to impose operational constraints that would make deportations impossible.

Negotiations continued Saturday evening on Capitol Hill, where Senate Republicans submitted what Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., described as a "significant compromise" offer. The GOP proposal would require body cameras, mandate additional training, and limit warrantless arrests near sensitive locations — including churches, hospitals, and schools — but stop well short of requiring judicial warrants before ICE home entries. Democrats left the meeting in under an hour without commenting to reporters, a sign that the gap between the two sides remains substantial.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., threatened Friday to cancel Congress's two-week Easter recess, which is scheduled to begin at the end of March, unless negotiators reach an agreement before the break. "We are not leaving Washington for two weeks while the Department of Homeland Security operates without a budget," Thune said. Democrats have argued that Republicans are artificially inflating urgency to pressure them into accepting inadequate reforms. "The Republican offer doesn't include the basic accountability measures we've been asking for since January," said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., the lead Democratic negotiator.

The practical effects of the shutdown have mounted steadily. TSA wait times at major airports in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago have stretched beyond two hours during peak travel periods, as the agency operates without the ability to hire additional screening officers. A federal judge this week blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a Pentagon-style credentialing system that would have restricted press access to DHS facilities, calling it an unconstitutional prior restraint. Meanwhile, immigrant advocacy organizations have reported that some detainees and their families cannot obtain access to ICE detention facilities because support staff are furloughed.

The Education Department separately announced it is transferring $180 billion in defaulted student loans to the Treasury Department as part of the administration's broader effort to wind down the federal education agency — a move that Democrats called an act of financial chaos with no congressional authorization. The student loan transfer, the shutdown at DHS, and the ongoing Iran war funding debate have combined to create one of the most chaotic congressional sessions in decades, with lawmakers struggling to manage multiple overlapping fiscal crises simultaneously.