February 13, 2026
We are headed for a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of the day today. That’s because there is still no deal to change the way ICE is conducting itself on the streets of America. And instead of sticking around and working it out – lots of Republicans and Democrats left Washington DC last night for a week long recess.
Don’t they care? Why are they doing this? Well – because neither side feels like they have to compromise and there’s not a lot at stake for them. But for you and thousands of federal workers – there absolutely is. And that’s part of the plan.
So as I’ve been reporting – congress is responsible for funding the entire federal government every single fiscal year. They finally did that –four months late — for almost every department in January. The only department that wasn’t funded for the fiscal year was Homeland Security. Democrats refused to vote to fund DHS until the trump administration and republicans agreed to 10 different policy changes to the way ICE operates. The Democrats want Homeland Security to do things like — return to the requirement to get a judicial warrant before entering someone’s home – which is obviously the way it’s always been done before trump came into office, they want no masks, they want ice to adhere to the same use of force policies as your neighborhood police officers, they want immigration officers to have to identify themselves among other things. The president says no deal — the judicial warrant thing and no mask things is a nonstarter.
And Democrats aren’t backing down either – they want policy changes for ice and customs and border protection and they’re not going to give their votes to fund Homeland Security until they get them. So – we’re in a standoff.
But let me explain why it appears like no lawmaker seems to be worried about homeland security shutting down. And I want to reiterate – Homeland Security is much more than ICE and CBP – Homeland Security also includes TSA and FEMA and the Coast Guard. Republicans don’t seem to be worried because they already gave ICE and CBP an unprecedented amount of extra money in the big beautiful bill – so they feel like if their annual appropriation of about $10 billion isn’t funded – then it’s no big deal because then they can pull money from that other pot. And Democrats don’t seem to be worried because their base is demanding they hold out and get some kind of change made to ice.
But while Democrats and Republicans are in this standoff – you are likely going to be impacted. When I say you – I mean the thousands of federal workers who work at the other homeland security agencies like FEMA and TSA and the coast guard. A large portion of them are considered essential – so they’re going to have to go to work without pay. Yes – they will eventually get back pay – but only after this is resolved – and there’s no telling how long this standoff is going to last – it could be weeks or a month or more. And I also say you will be impacted because if – for example you’re traveling TSA workers will be stretched thin or maybe won’t show up to work if they’re not being paid – we just saw that happen during the last government shutdown – remember the u-s government started canceling flights? Remember that chaos? Yeah that could happen again. And if you trying to recover after a natural disaster and have a pending FEMA claim – that may get delayed because of all of this.
So what’s going to end this stand off? Well – it’s true lawmakers are scheduled to be on recess all next week – but they are on standby if there’s a deal on this DHS funding. But if there’s no deal – the only real way this is going to come to an end is if enough of you are impacted enough to put pressure on your lawmakers to come to some compromise. Both sides are going to have to give up something and until they feel like they have to – they won’t.
