Partial Government Shutdown At US Homeland Security Department Begins After Funding Lapse

WASHINGTON, Feb 14 (Bernama-Anadolu) -- A partial government shutdown at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) began early Saturday after Congress failed to pass a funding bill before the Friday midnight deadline, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported.

The shutdown follows weeks of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on reforms to immigration enforcement and oversight of agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

DHS is now the only federal agency without funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2026, which continues through Sept 30, while lawmakers have already approved spending bills covering the rest of the government since a record-long shutdown ended in November.

The latest funding measure, passed at the end of January, provided DHS with a two-week extension to allow Congress additional time to negotiate changes to the agency’s immigration enforcement practices, a stipulation pushed by Senate Democrats following the killing of two Americans by ICE agents in the state of Minnesota in January.

Democrats have insisted on stronger oversight and tighter limits on immigration enforcement, including banning the use of masks by officers, requiring body cameras to remain on and mandating visible identification, as a condition for supporting the funding bill.

As Republicans have rejected the Democrats’ demands and called them "unreasonable", the Senate failed to advance a measure Thursday to fund the department, with lawmakers in both chambers leaving Washington without a deal.

The funding lapse affects DHS and its constellation of agencies, including the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Without funding, many of the workers deemed essential will be forced to work without pay, or furloughed, while others will be told to stay home.

But two of the agencies that have stoked Democratic furor amid President Donald Trump's migrant crackdown, ICE and CBP, are unlikely to suffer major operational effects from the partial shutdown through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed last year.

Lawmakers are expected to resume negotiations in an effort to end the partial shutdown, though there was no immediate indication of when a vote might occur.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Friday reiterated the Democrats ' demand of the Democrats, saying "dramatic changes" are needed at DHS in terms of ICE and CBP.

"ICE needs to be dramatically reformed. Period. Full stop," Jeffries said.

Trump underlined his support for law enforcement, saying, "They have done a great job."

"I know what they want; I know what they can live with," Trump told the reporters, adding that Democrats "have gone crazy. They're radical left lunatics. That's why their cities are so unsafe," he said.

If the partial shutdown drags on, tens of thousands of federal workers could be required to continue to work without pay, while some agencies might be compelled to scale back staffing levels until funding is restored.

-- BERNAMA-ANADOLU