Homeland Security shutdown standoff: What each side wants

Here's where things stand with the shutdown of the agency in charge of TSA, the Coast Guard, Secret Service, ICE and more.

Washington – The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than two weeks, jeopardizing airport security, disaster relief, coastline safety and even pay for members of the Secret Service as they guarded the president during the State of the Union.

The Trump administration sent its latest proposal to Senate Democrats to reopen the agency on Feb. 27, but negotiations between the White House and Capitol Hill have been happening largely behind closed doors.

There's still no end in sight to the funding impasse. Members of both parties have continued talking past each other, at least publicly, in recent days. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters Feb. 25 that the Trump administration had yet to start negotiating earnestly about demands to overhaul federal immigration enforcement.

Hours later, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, contradicted Murray, saying top administration officials and Senate Democrats were trading paper.

"The White House, I think, has been, in good faith, trying to come to the table and work out some of the differences that the Democrats have, but in ways that don't jeopardize or undermine the ability of our law enforcement officials to do their jobs, and do them in a way that keeps them safe," he said.

It was an indication of how far apart both sides still remain in the shutdown standoff – the third time in President Donald Trump's second term that funding for the 9/11-era Cabinet agency has lapsed.

Lawmakers and administration officials have indicated thousands of employees are working without pay, and some crucial functions, including at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Coast Guard, have been scaled back until the shutdown ends. (Immigration enforcement operations have continued as usual.)

Despite those high stakes, the president made sparing mentions of the funding lapse in his State of the Union speech Feb. 24. The lack of attention he brought to the standoff underlined just how commonplace shutdowns have become in Washington, especially in the second Trump era.

The longer the impasse drags on, the worse it will become. Union leaders for workers at the Transportation Security Administration are already anticipating longer wait times for airline passengers after TSA employees received a fraction of their usual pay on Friday, Feb. 27.

But it doesn't feel as if lawmakers are experiencing a critical mass of pressure from their constituents yet to force a deal. And the further away the timeline gets from the fatal shootings of two Minnesotans in January, the more leverage Republicans may sense they have. Washington's attention has already started largely turning away from the politics of immigration enforcement and toward the U.S. military strikes in Iran and heightened tensions with Iran and Cuba.

What Democrats want

Weeks ago, Democrats made 10 central demands to the White House.

After the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Democrats took a stand to push for a ban on mask-wearing for agents, stricter use-of-force standards and body camera requirements. They also want tightened restrictions around what types of warrants authorize federal agents to arrest people and use force to enter residences. And they want to reestablish a longstanding precedent that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, won't target "sensitive locations" such as schools, hospitals and churches.

"All they have to do is agree with our simple ideas that every police department, just about, in America, follows," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, on Feb. 25. "It's plain and simple."

An incident in Schumer's own state a day after he made those remarks may throw a wrench in the negotiations with the White House. According to administrators at Columbia University in New York City, five federal agents misrepresented who they were – falsely saying they were police looking for a missing child – so they could gain access to a residential dorm. Without a warrant, they then detained a senior named Ellie Aghayeva over concerns about her student visa. She was released later that day after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani made a personal appeal to the president.

What Republicans want

Republicans in Congress and the White House are still pushing back on various pieces of the Democrats' proposals.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said appeals for a mask ban and judicial warrant requirements are nonstarters. Face coverings are arguably the biggest sticking point; Johnson and other Republican lawmakers have said they help prevent federal agents from becoming targets for harassment or threats.

The speaker has, however, indicated an openness to limits on "roving patrols," or random stops of suspicious vehicles, and to bolstering the use of body-worn cameras. Before Pretti's shooting by Border Patrol agents upended the bipartisan agreement to fund DHS through the rest of the year, Republicans had already agreed to set aside $20 million for body-worn cameras for immigration enforcement agents.

Schumer's office said Feb. 27 that it was closely reviewing the White House's latest counteroffer.

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.