DHS Shutdown

By Sydney Johnson

On Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security shut down because Congress Democrats refused to fund its operations amid violence committed by immigration enforcement. Despite this, ICE will likely continue its ‘work’ due to the large amount of funding it received from Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ last year, which will carry it through this lapse in funding.

It is unclear how long the shutdown will last; however, ICE is not the only federal organization affected. 92% of the DHS workforce, around 249,065 employees, will continue to work without pay. This includes TSA workers, Coast Guard employees, and Secret Service employees who will receive back pay once the shutdown ends.

So what is the point? The demands made by democrats to reinstate funding for DHS are for limits to be placed on immigration operations, following a rise in violent encounters with immigration officers, such as the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis. Some of these restrictions include not wearing facial coverings and including body cameras in officers' uniforms. These changes would likely reduce violence, but what about right now? There are still citizens being taken off the streets or from their homes by ICE despite the shutdown. 

“Its unfortunate that our government is allowing ICE to keep destroying people's lives and making our cities unsafe while the workers we actually need are like going without pay,” said Dylan Paddy, a Hampton University student. He sees this shutdown as a “distraction away from the real issues.”

This action will hurt more people than it helps. Since ICE has more than enough funding, the only people who will truly be affected are the same essential workers as during the previous government shutdown in October. "Some are just recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown,” Ha Nguyen McNeill, Deputy Administrator of TSA, told the Senate.