The government shutdown is hitting airports — but not ICE

Chaos reigned at airports across the country last weekend, with thousands of travelers reportedly waiting in hours-long security lines thanks to staffing shortages. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Coast Guard workers have turned to food banks for assistance after weeks without pay. But amid a partial government shutdown aimed at curtailing the Department of Homeland Security’s mass arrests and deportations, federal agents have continued their anti-immigrant crackdown unabated — and for now, there’s not much anyone can do.

DHS has gone without funding for four weeks in a standoff over immigration enforcement. Congressional Democrats say the lapse will continue until the White House agrees to a number of changes at ICE and CBP. But while major parts of DHS are affected, ICE and CBP still have plenty of money at their disposal. Trump’s signature One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which passed by the narrowest of margins last fall despite universal Democratic opposition, gave the agencies a combined $170 billion to put towards immigration enforcement through 2029. Much of this money went to ICE, which received $45 billion toward the construction of new detention centers and $30 billion to hire and train personnel. The appropriations currently under debate would give ICE additional funding on top of this $75 billion. This kind of multi-year funding is unusual, and it’s insulated the agencies from political pressure.

Relying on the OBBBA’s funds, ICE has continued arresting immigrants — including a Nashville-based journalist who frequently reports on the agency, who has a pending asylum claim — and detaining them in substandard facilities. Despite the shutdown, Customs and Border Protection has continued scouting additional locations for its “smart wall” along the US-Mexico border, and briefly considered building a barrier through Big Bend National Park in Texas. (The agency has since dropped the plan, likely due to local pushback.) Most DHS employees, including TSA officers and CBP agents, are currently going without pay, though they will receive backpay when funding resumes.

Democrats are demanding a series of compromises to re-fund DHS for this fiscal year. They have called for “targeted enforcement” rather than roving patrols, an end to racial profiling, a “reasonable use of force policy,” and expanded training for officers. Democratic lawmakers, who have compared ICE and CBP’s plainclothes officers to a “paramilitary police,” want DHS to prohibit masks and standardize uniforms for agents in the field. They’ve also requested that officers wear body cameras, as well as IDs displaying their agency, last name, and unique officer number.

“These are common-sense reforms, ones that Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a January press conference. So far, these requests have gone nowhere.

Democrats have notched one high-profile victory in the fight: Trump fired DHS secretary Kristi Noem last Thursday ahead of a House vote to fund DHS. But most Democrats aren’t content with Noem’s ouster. “The problems at this agency transcend any one person,” Schumer said at a press conference after last Thursday’s vote. “The rot is deep. The president has to end the violence and rein in ICE.” The House passed the appropriations bill after her firing, but Senate Democrats didn’t budge.

“It’s not like Kristi Noem was involved in negotiating anything,” 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 the secretary is. “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’s little reason for the administration to give in to Democrats’ demands. The White House and congressional Republicans have blamed the shutdown on “Radical Left Democrats,” claiming their refusal to fund DHS is putting Americans at risk. Though essential federal employees continue to work through the shutdown — in some cases without pay — Republicans have warned that the funding lapse may prevent DHS from responding to “threats against our homeland” in light of the Trump administration’s recent invasion of Iran. Even if individual officers have to go without pay, the unprecedented funding ICE and CBP received from the OBBBA mean the agencies’ operations can continue.

Last year’s government shutdown provides insight into ICE and CBP’s operations. ICE deported an estimated 56,000 people during the 43-day funding lapse last fall and held approximately 65,000 people in detention during the same timeframe. But because its operations were funded from OBBBA appropriations, ICE claimed in court filings, the agency didn’t have 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 aren’t equally distributed among DHS’s various component agencies. Ironically, given that Congress created DHS in response to the September 11th airplane attacks, the agency that has experienced the most disruptions so far is the TSA. Agents received roughly 30 percent of their pay last week but will not be paid again until DHS is funded, according to the Times. Ports of entry, including airports, are still mostly operational. Though DHS initially claimed TSA Precheck would be suspended amid the shutdown, the program is currently running at most airports. Global Entry, which is handled by CBP, is largely suspended.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that handles naturalizations, green cards, and other benefit applications, remains operational. Unlike other DHS agencies, USCIS is almost entirely fee-funded, meaning it is largely unaffected by the federal funding debate. Immigration courts also remain open, since the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the federal agency that oversees the immigration court system, is under the purview of the Department of Justice.

Some DHS employees, however, are out of work amid the shutdown. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said on Sunday that Democrats want to fund most DHS component agencies — including the TSA, Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — separately.

Roughly 15 percent of FEMA workers are currently furloughed, 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 anticipated” 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 has deemed “essential to protecting life and property” have had to work without pay.

“Let’s just pass those funding bills,” Kaine said. Let’s confine the ICE and CBP reform discussion just to those two agencies and fund the others. Thus far, Republicans have blocked those efforts.”