The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since February 14, and the practical consequences are no longer limited to the policy debate in Washington. At airports across the country, TSA officers are quitting or calling out rather than work without pay, and the lines at security checkpoints are growing longer by the day.
Senate Democrats blocked a House-passed bill to reopen DHS on Friday in a 47-to-37 vote, the fifth time since February 12 that the legislation has failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to advance. Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only member of his party to vote with Republicans.
The core argument is over immigration enforcement. Democrats are refusing to support any DHS funding bill that includes money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection without what they describe as meaningful reforms to both agencies. Two US citizens were shot and killed by DHS officers in Minneapolis earlier this year, and Democrats say that context makes the case for change unavoidable.
“They’ve got to get serious,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech, pointing specifically to the absence of movement on ICE agents being required to carry visible identification and obtain judicial warrants before entering homes. “The key issues of warrants when you bust in someone’s house, the key issue of identity of police, no masks, they haven’t budged on those.”
Republicans argue that Democrats are holding national security hostage to advance an immigration policy agenda that voters have already rejected. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Saturday that the shutdown “doesn’t reflect well on anybody,” but maintained that Republicans would not fund pieces of DHS in isolation.
“This is our job. This is what we should be doing here, and there being good faith efforts made to try and address the issues that Democrats are concerned about by the administration and they’re working hard to get an outcome,” Thune said.
White House border czar Tom Homan met with a bipartisan group of senators on both Thursday and Friday. Republicans emerging from the meetings described cautious progress. Republicans said after Friday’s meeting that they had submitted a counterproposal to Democrats in the form of legislative language, a concrete step after weeks of verbal exchanges.
The administration’s written offer to Democrats included greater adoption of body cameras, limits on enforcement at hospitals and schools, and increased oversight of detention facilities. Democrats said the concessions fell short of what is needed on the core issues of warrants and identification.
Thune threatened to cancel the Senate’s two-week Easter recess if a deal is not reached before the break. That prospect is either an incentive to move quickly or a sign of how politically toxic a prolonged shutdown is becoming for all parties involved.
One official warned this week that some airports may need to be closed entirely if staffing levels continue to fall. That is the kind of consequence that moves past the political argument and lands directly on voters in a way that is very difficult to explain away.
