Why it’s happening, what it impacts and more

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security closed its doors over the weekend as the White House and Democratic leaders continued to discuss changes to the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota last month.

The two sides continued to exchange offers, raising some hope of reaching an agreement. But it remains unclear which Democratic demands the White House will accept and Congress left Washington on Thursday without a deal.

With Congress out of town, DHS funding officially expired at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. That means federal employees at agencies like FEMA, the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard won’t get paid, even though most of them will continue to report to work because their jobs are considered critical.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which are at the center of the conflict between the parties, will be even less affected by the shutdown. Employees at both agencies are expected to continue working and getting paid, since those agencies still have access to $75 billion in funding approved last year in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

The House and Senate are not expected to return until Feb. 23, raising the prospect of a DHS shutdown for at least 10 days. But they could come back sooner if there was a bill to vote on.

“I let people know that they would be available to come back here if they could come to an agreement to vote on this,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said before members left.

Senate Republicans on Thursday failed to advance legislation to fund DHS for the rest of the fiscal year by a vote of 52-47, far short of the 60 votes needed to eliminate a filibuster. The only Democrat to join them was Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

After that, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., asked for unanimous consent to pass a stopgap bill to keep funds flowing for two weeks while the two sides continued their negotiations. This was blocked by Sen. Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, on behalf of Democrats, who made it clear they would not accept another short-term bill without reforms.

“The path forward is simple: negotiate serious safeguards that protect Americans, rein in ICE and end the violence,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters. “Americans are watching what’s happening in neighborhood after neighborhood across the country. They know it’s wrong. They know it’s excessive. And they want Congress, the Senate, to do something about it.”

Although neither side has given details of the ongoing talks, Democrats released a series of 10 demands last week that included requiring officers to carry identification, obtain court warrants to enter private property and stop wearing masks.

A senior White House official told reporters Thursday that Democrats rejected the White House’s latest counterproposal on immigration control reforms.

“We are not going to negotiate in public,” the official said, while adding that a “particularly difficult aspect” of the Democrats’ demands is to end warrantless arrests. “The administration remains interested in working in good faith with these guys, but we will not be held hostage on an issue that the president was elected to address,” the official said.

Schumer also said: “I’m not going to negotiate in public and go into details. But he added that the White House had to accept more than it currently is: “Their proposal is not serious, plain and simple. It is very far from what we need.”

While blaming Democrats for the shutdown, top Republicans warned that the lack of funding would have no impact on ICE and Trump’s other immigration enforcement efforts.

“The things they want to close are not going to close,” said House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla. “ICE is fully funded. The Border Patrol is fully funded. What they’re doing is hurting TSA agents, hurting air traffic controllers who would be eligible for a pay raise, stopping the men and women of the Coast Guard from getting paid, and making sure that we can’t fully defund FEMA.”

Republicans argued that changes were already underway in response to the Minneapolis killings. Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to replace Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino in Minneapolis. DHS said it was in the process of acquiring and deploying body cameras for its agents in the field, another of Democrats’ initial demands. On Thursday, Homan said the Trump administration was ending its immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota.

“This is all just politics. There’s no serious political issue here that they’re trying to achieve, or that they’re going to achieve this way,” Cole said of the shutdown.

This DHS shutdown is much more limited than last fall’s historic 43-day shutdown, which affected all federal agencies, furloughed hundreds of thousands of workers without pay, affected national parks and caused some disruptions at airports.

Indeed, all departments except DHS are fully funded through September. And unlike that battle, when the White House refused to enter into negotiations with Democrats over funding for the Affordable Care Act, the two sides are talking this time.

With Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, a funding bill requires 60 votes to break the Senate filibuster. And Democrats feel emboldened to push for reforms to ICE and CBP following recent backlash against the Trump administration’s handling of immigration enforcement.

A new NBC News poll released this week finds that public approval of Trump’s handling of “border and immigration security” has plunged. Just 40% of American adults said they approved, while 60% said they disapproved. That’s a change from last June, when 51% said they approved and 49% said they disapproved.

“We want to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but only a department that follows the law,” Murphy said.