The Department of Homeland Security is about to shut down after a political impasse in Congress over immigration enforcement.
The situation has the potential to impact many Americans – including travelers, boaters, storm victims and tens of thousands of DHS employees – for an indefinite period of time. Amid tenuous and slow-moving negotiations between Democrats and the White House, it’s unclear how long the shutdown, which only involves a small but important piece of the federal government, will last.
Critically, DHS includes the Transportation Security Administration, the division of the federal government most responsible for airport security. During last year’s record-breaking shutdown, many TSA workers slept in their cars, received eviction notices, lost child care services and sold their blood and plasma as their paychecks were delayed.
Though they were expected to continue working, TSA employee absences rose, causing flight disruptions. Delays and cancellations in plane travel were also caused by air traffic control issues, which won’t happen this time around since the shutdown won’t pertain to the Transportation Department.
Acting TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told lawmakers Feb. 11 that the roughly 61,000 employees at more than 430 commercial airports who’ll be impacted by another funding lapse can’t go through it all over again.
“Some are just recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown,” she said. “We cannot put them through another such experience. It would be unconscionable.”
Despite that plea, Congress left town a day later without an agreement to fund DHS, which has come under widespread scrutiny since federal agents killed two Minnesotans in separate incidents last month. Appropriations for the agency were set to expire after Friday, Feb. 13.
Since 37-year-old Alex Pretti was fatally shot by Border Patrol agents, Democrats have united around demands to reform DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. They’re pushing for a prohibition on masks and stricter use-of-force standards, as well as requirements for body cameras and judicial warrants for immigration raids. Republicans have indicated several of those asks are nonstarters, in particular the mask-wearing ban, which they say could lead to agents being doxed.
The shutdown will force DHS to scale back its operations and postpone pay for many workers. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for instance, warned that the crisis will “severely disrupt” his ability to reimburse states for disaster relief costs.
However, many of DHS’s law enforcement activities, including immigration enforcement, will continue. Lawmakers have noted in recent days that ICE, which usually stays on the job during shutdowns, already has a surplus of funding it can draw down related to President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
Because the partial shutdown will only apply to DHS, other services and programs that were affected during the longest-ever shutdown last year will be safe from the political back-and-forth. Food stamps, air traffic controllers and the military (except the Coast Guard, which falls under DHS) won’t be impacted.
Yet as was the case during the 2025 shutdown, the longer it drags on, the worse the pain is for Americans. Many lawmakers planned to spend the next week outside of Washington, with some traveling to Germany for a security conference. Congress doesn’t have another vote scheduled until Feb. 23.
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A DHS shutdown is coming. Why travelers should brace for impact.
Reporting by Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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