What is the endgame in the DHS shutdown?

The federal government is partially shut down over Democratic demands to rein in the Department of Homeland Security, and a compromise is nowhere in sight. What would a deal to end the shutdown look like?

Democrats have “nearly a dozen demands” for immigration enforcement reform, said The Hill. The list includes provisions to “tighten warrant requirements, unmask agents engaging in field operations and end roving patrols.” Those are “common sense proposals,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). But Republicans say they have already agreed to “funding increases for body cameras and de-escalation measures,” said The Hill. What GOP officials have offered is “far better than what the status quo is,” said a Republican congressional aide.

The goal is to “get ICE under control,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said to PBS NewsHour. President Donald Trump “promised to target violent felons who are here illegally” but has instead been “targeting law-abiding immigrant families and brutalizing American communities.” Immigration has long been one of Trump’s strongest issues. Recent polling, though, shows “most Americans feel Trump’s immigration policy has gone too far,” said CNBC.

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What did the commentators say?

The “daily thuggery of anonymous federal agents” has “rightly riled” much of the country, said Chris Brennan at USA Today. With the 2026 midterm elections just nine months away, the backlash should inspire the GOP-controlled Congress to take action “rather than just expressing discomfort” in the face of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent attacks on Americans. Democrats are asking for “simple, commonsense reforms” in the way the agency enforces immigration laws. Republicans can and should “take a baby-steps approach to reform” by meeting those demands. Otherwise they could “pay for it dearly in the Nov. 3 general election.”

There is “one problem” hindering Democrats in the negotiations, said Audrey Fahlberg at the National Review. Republicans funded ICE through September 2029 in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” they passed last year. So the shutdown “won’t pause immigration enforcement operations or paychecks.” But it is going to take a toll on “other intra-agency operations” including the Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Trump administration has already announced a withdrawal from Minneapolis and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has announced the expanded use of body cameras. Those concessions are a “clear effort to lay blame on Democrats” for the shutdown.

What next?

One irony is that the shutdown is “throwing the fate of oversight at the Department of Homeland Security into peril,” said Politico. The department’s inspector general has eight different probes underway into the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown that it is being forced to suspend during the shutdown. The broader public may be more concerned about the possibility of “longer security lines at the nation’s commercial airports,” said The Associated Press. TSA agents are “deemed essential personnel” and thus required to stay on the job. But they will not get paid until the shutdown is over. That may not be soon. The White House on Tuesday rejected Democrats’ latest proposal to end the shutdown.