DHS funding lapse triggers shutdown as immigration dispute deepens after fatal shootings

The Department of Homeland Security has run out of funding, forcing a partial shutdown that exposes a widening standoff in Washington over immigration enforcement and federal oversight.

The lapse, the third of Donald Trump’s second term, began over the weekend and is set to continue at least until Congress returns from recess on February 23. As with previous shutdowns, operations classified as essential will continue, but thousands of federal employees are either furloughed or working without pay.

At airports, the impact is immediate but uneven. Of the Transportation Security Administration’s more than 64,000 staff, 2,933 have been sent home, while the rest remain on duty without salaries until funding is restored. The same funding gap affects other DHS components, including FEMA, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Coast Guard.

The budget dispute is now tightly bound to two fatal shootings in Minneapolis last month, when federal immigration officers killed US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good during enforcement operations. Democrats have made changes to DHS procedures a condition for moving forward, turning what might have been a routine funding fight into a broader argument about how immigration raids are conducted.

Minnesota officials say the conflict is extending into the investigations themselves. FBI cooperation with state authorities has broken down in the Pretti case, an extraordinary development that the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension described as “concerning and unprecedented”.

House Democrats, led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have put forward a detailed list of demands aimed at tightening oversight of federal agents. The proposals would require judicial warrants before entering private property, stricter verification of citizenship before detention, visible identification and a ban on masks during operations. They would also restrict enforcement activity near courts, hospitals, schools, places of worship and polling stations, and require greater coordination with local law enforcement.

“Federal immigration agents cannot continue to cause chaos in our cities while using taxpayer money that should be used to make life more affordable for working families,” Jeffries said, adding that “it is critical that we come together to impose common sense reforms and accountability measures that the American people are demanding.”

Republicans have rejected the conditions outright. Border chief Tom Homan called the proposals “unreasonable”, while Senator Markwayne Mullin dismissed them as “political theatre”, framing the shutdown as a tactical move rather than a policy necessity.