Oh Yeah, We’re in a Partial Government Shutdown, BTW

As of Saturday morning, the federal government is officially in a partial shutdown over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, following Democrats’ refusal to give ICE even more billions after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens.

Assuming Democrats don’t fold as pathetically as they did in November, the shutdown could give the party the leverage to push changes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), like requiring them to wear masks and identification, tightening warrant requirements for immigration-related searches and arrests, and further embarrassing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.)—who monitors porn intake with his son—by continuing to prove just how little control he has over his own chamber.

Ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline, the Senate voted 71-29 to pass the funding package made up of five bills. The original package included a sixth bill to give DHS an additional $64.4 billion, including $10 billion to ICE—but Senate Dems said they’d refuse to pass it after Alex Pretti was shot and killed on January 24. (Despite Republicans’ 53–47 Senate majority, the filibuster means legislation still needs 60 votes to pass.)

So, at the eleventh hour, Senate leaders struck a deal to split the DHS bill from the rest of the package, buying two weeks to negotiate possible reforms. While the remaining bills passed the Senate, it now needs to pass the House. Until then, the Pentagon, the Treasury, and the departments of State, Transportation, Homeland Security, Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development are shut down; some federal workers were already receiving furlough notices.

Hours after the vote, Johnson told GOP representatives in a private call that the most likely path forward would be to fast-track the bill as early as Monday. That maneuver, however, would require a two-thirds majority—numbers Johnson almost certainly does not have.

Democrats quickly shut that timeline down. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said lower chamber Dems would not be fast-tracking anything. “The administration can’t just talk the talk. They need to walk the walk,” he told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “That should begin today. Not in two weeks, today.” Speaking to NBC News, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) was even more direct, “I’m not just a no. I’m a firm no.”

Johnson, for his part, told NBC on Sunday he’s “confident” the shutdown could end by Tuesday. But speaking to Fox News, he stated that the conditions to unmask agents and ID them “are conditions that would create further danger”—as if it’s not already dangerous to exist in Trump’s America. As of January 2026, YouGov reports a majority of Americans support abolishing ICE.

On Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tweeted that “effective immediately we are deploying body cameras to every officer in the field in Minneapolis.” This, of course, begs the question: why weren’t federal agents already wearing body cameras?! She also snuck in that DHS would require agents across the country to wear body cameras “as funding is available,” before signing off with, “The most transparent administration in American history—thank you @POTUS Trump.” Someone is still begging to keep her job. 

At the time of writing, it remains unclear whether Johnson has the GOP support to advance the funding package. A two-thirds majority means he’ll need 290 votes—and so far, he’s got a razor-thin 218-213 majority, narrowed even further after Dem. Christian Menefee won a special election in Texas over the weekend. Luckily, the agency that runs SNAP already had its funding bill passed—so Johnson won’t be able to use starving Americans as leverage to strip healthcare from other Americans. At least not this time.

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