The government shutdown is hitting airports — but not ICE
Chaos reigned at airports across the country last weekend, with thousands of travelers reportedly waiting for hours in security queues due to understaffing. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Coast Guard workers have turned to food banks for help after weeks without pay. But amid a partial government shutdown aimed at curtailing mass arrests and deportations by the Department of Homeland Security, federal agents have relentlessly continued their anti-immigration crackdown — and for now, there’s little anyone can do.
DHS went unfunded for four weeks in a stalemate over immigration enforcement. Congressional Democrats say this situation will continue until the White House agrees to a number of changes at ICE and CBP. But even if entire parts of DHS are affected, ICE and CBP still have plenty of money at their disposal. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed by a razor-thin margin last fall despite universal Democratic opposition, gave agencies a total of $170 billion to spend on immigration enforcement through 2029. Much of that money went to ICE, which received $45 billion to build new detention centers and $30 billion to hire and train staff. The appropriations currently under debate would give ICE additional funding on top of that $75 billion. This type of multi-year funding is unusual and protects agencies from political pressure.
Relying on OBBBA funds, ICE has continued to arrest immigrants — including a Nashville-based journalist who frequently reports on the agency and who has a pending asylum case — and detain them in unsanitary facilities. Despite the shutdown, Customs and Border Protection continued to look for other locations for its “smart wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border and briefly considered building a barrier through Big Bend National Park in Texas. (The agency has since abandoned that plan, likely due to local resistance.) Most DHS employees, including TSA agents and CBP officers, are currently not paid, although they will receive back pay when funding resumes.
Democrats are demanding a series of compromises to refund DHS for this fiscal year. They called for “targeted enforcement” rather than roving patrols, an end to racial profiling, a “reasonable use of force policy” and expanded officer training. Democratic lawmakers, who have likened plainclothes ICE and CBP agents to “paramilitary police,” want DHS to ban masks and standardize uniforms for agents in the field. They also required officers to wear body cameras, as well as ID showing their agency, last name and unique officer number.
“These are common-sense reforms that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference in January. So far, these requests have come to nothing.
ICE deported about 56,000 people during a 43-day funding shutdown last fall and detained about 65,000 people during the same period.
Democrats scored a resounding victory in this fight: Trump fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem last Thursday, ahead of a House vote to defund DHS. But most Democrats aren’t content with Noem’s ouster. “The problems with this agency transcend any one person,” Schumer said at a news conference after last Thursday’s vote. “The rot runs deep. The president must end the violence and rein in ICE.” The House passed the appropriations bill after he was dismissed, but Senate Democrats didn’t budge.
“It’s not like Kristi Noem was involved in anything while negotiating,” added House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). It has long been understood that Trump adviser Stephen Miller runs the show at DHS, regardless of who is the secretary. “We were dealing with the White House before, and we’re going to continue to deal with the White House at this point,” Jeffries said.
There is no reason for the administration to give in to Democrats’ demands. The White House and congressional Republicans blamed the shutdown on “radical left-wing Democrats,” saying their refusal to fund DHS put Americans at risk. Although essential federal employees continue to work during the shutdown – in some cases without pay – Republicans have warned that the lack of funding could prevent DHS from responding to “threats to our homeland” in light of the Trump administration’s recent invasion of Iran. Even though some agents must remain without pay, the unprecedented funding that ICE and CBP received from OBBBA means that agency operations can continue.
Last year’s government shutdown provides insight into ICE and CBP operations. ICE deported about 56,000 people during a 43-day funding shutdown last fall and detained about 65,000 people during the same period. But because its operations were funded by OBBBA appropriations, ICE argued in court filings, the agency was not obligated to grant entry to Democratic lawmakers who sought to monitor conditions in federal detention centers as part of their oversight duties.
The effects of the shutdown are not distributed equally among the various DHS component agencies. Ironically, given that Congress created DHS in response to the 9/11 air attacks, the agency that has seen the most disruption thus far is the TSA. The agents received about 30 percent of their salaries last week but will not be paid again until DHS is funded, according to the Times. Entry points, including airports, are still mostly operational. Although DHS initially claimed that TSA Precheck would be suspended during the shutdown, the program is currently underway at most airports. Global Entry, which is managed by CBP, is largely suspended.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that handles naturalizations, green cards and other applications for benefits, remains operational. Unlike other DHS agencies, USCIS is almost entirely funded by fees, meaning it is largely unaffected by the federal funding debate. Immigration courts also remain open, as the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the federal agency that oversees the immigration court system, reports to the Department of Justice.
Some DHS employees, however, are unemployed due to the shutdown. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said Sunday that Democrats want to separately fund most of DHS’s component agencies — including the TSA, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
About 15 percent of FEMA workers are currently unemployed, while the remaining 85 percent are expected to work without pay. THE New York Times reports that FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund is equipped to handle “current and planned” emergency response activities. Its response to a major disaster, however, “would be seriously strained,” Gregg Phillips, the associate administrator for the agency’s Office of Response and Recovery, said in federal testimony last week.
Nearly two-thirds of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency employees are furloughed. Many of the 888 employees the agency considers “essential to the protection of life and property” have had to work without pay.
“Let’s just pass these funding bills,” Kaine said. Let’s limit the debate about reforming ICE and CBP to these two agencies and defund the others. So far, Republicans have blocked these efforts.”
