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As a partial government shutdown blows past the one-month mark, Democrats are demanding lawmakers shrink the size of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) funding lapse — while leaving out the agency at the heart of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in their view, can stay shut down.
“We already said we’d open everything in the department except ICE, so the answer is yes,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said when asked about partial funding for DHS.
“Republicans won’t agree because they’re trying to hold the security of the country hostage.”
SCHUMER, DEMS AGAIN BLOCK DHS FUNDING, FORCE STATE OF THE UNION SHOWDOWN
Capitol Hill, left, pictured next to ICE agents, right. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty Images; Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
His position was echoed by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
“We need to fund every aspect of it other than ICE. We’re going to fight on the ICE funding. I mean, they already have $75 billion,” Khanna said, noting that ICE itself already received funding through Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.
In light of those appropriations, Republicans believe Democrats have assumed an unsustainable position as they continue to shoot down efforts to fund DHS in its entirety.
“They’re not interested in reopening, right? Their whole thing is: ‘Okay, we’re doing a shutdown to go out there and affect ICE and Border Patrol.’ But ICE and border patrol are the ones that are not even affected by this shutdown. They’re funded by the One Big, Beautiful Bill that passed previously,” Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., said.
“How long do I foresee Democrats lying to their base? Forever,” Mast added.
Calls to implement the partial funding stance have grown louder since the shutdown first began.
KRISTI NOEM’S FIRING FAILS TO SWAY DEMOCRATS AS DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS ON
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Al Drago/Bloomberg…
