What You Should Know about the DHS Shutdown

A partial government shutdown that began at midnight on February 14 has halted appropriated funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), affecting FEMA, TSA, the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A new podcast episode provides an assessment of where negotiations stand and what is at stake for immigration enforcement nationwide.

Guest Grant Newman, Director of Government Relations for the Immigration Accountability Project, discusses the evolving Democratic demands that triggered the partial government shutdown. Initially vague, those demands have since focused on proposed restrictions on ICE operations, including requiring judicial warrants for civil immigration enforcement, prohibiting enforcement at or near certain locations (such as schools, hospitals, churches, courthouses, and more), banning officer face coverings, and mandating body camera requirements. Newman argues these measures would effectively halt interior enforcement without formally abolishing ICE.

Few details are available about negotiations, with Congress out of session and the White House engaged in closed-door discussions directly with Democratic leadership. The episode examines whether the current strategy is strengthening enforcement opponents’ leverage or creating political risk, particularly if a national emergency occurs during the shutdown.

The discussion also explores potential Republican counter-demands (including a stop to sanctuary jurisdiction non-cooperation), internal party dynamics, the timing of the shutdown, and the sustainability of DHS operations if the shutdown persists too long.

The program concludes with commentary from Mark Krikorian, who highlights recent reporting by Andrew Arthur detailing how nearly one million immigration court cases were administratively closed under the Biden administration — creating what he describes as a “legal dark hole” that shielded removable aliens from enforcement and functioned as a de facto amnesty.

Host

Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies

Guest

Grant Newman is Director of Government Relations for the Immigration Accountability Project

Related

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Intro Montage

Voices in the opening montage:

• Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.
• Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.
• President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.
• Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.
• Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.
• Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.
• Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.
• Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.
• Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.
• Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".