Only One Democrat Voted to Keep Funding Homeland Security
The only Senate Democrat to vote to continue funding the Department of Homeland Security was none other than John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.
The progressive who became a Trump supporter vote to advance a bill funding DHS for next year, using the justification that he opposes government shutdowns for any reason. Every other Senate Democrat, including centrists like Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucus with Democrats, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, voted against the funding. The bill ultimately did not move forward, despite Fetterman’s best efforts.
Fetterman posted a video on Thursday X, saying “the DHS shutdown has no impact and no change for ICE.”
“ICE already has $75 billion in BBB funding that I didn’t vote for,” Fetterman said, referring to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill that passed in July. “But it will affect FEMA, the Coast Guard, the TSA and our cybersecurity agency. As a Democrat, I cannot vote to shut down critical parts of our government.”
The DHS shutdown has no impact and no change for ICE.
ICE already has $75 billion in BBB funding that I did not vote for.
But it will affect FEMA, the Coast Guard, the TSA and our cybersecurity agency.
As a Democrat, I cannot vote to shut down essential parts of our government. pic.twitter.com/QYasx0LwCo– US Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) February 12, 2026
“Republicans need to work with us, and they haven’t even come to the table to address our concerns,” Masto said, adding that she would oppose even temporary funding for DHS because progress on ICE and Border Patrol reform had stalled. New Jersey’s Cory Booker said On Wednesday, Congress “can’t give another dollar” to DHS.
“You have a reckless, out-of-control agency that is violating the rights of Americans. Literally, it’s shooting and killing Americans unjustly. And my colleagues don’t seem to blame it. Small-government conservatives don’t think this is in any way an overreach of executive power into the lives of people in the community,” Booker told Chris Hayes on MS NOW.
Fetterman called on President Trump to fire DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, warning last month, “it betrays the core mission of DHS and destroys your legacy of border security.” But otherwise he has taken a right-wing stance on immigration, supporting ICE and Trump’s mass deportation agenda despite the fact that his own wife, Gisèle, was once undocumented.
