By Anvee Bhutani
WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has warned that Democrats won't back another short-term funding patch to "extend the status quo" for the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans say more time is needed to reach a deal over new restrictions on immigration enforcement. Lawmakers in both parties have signaled chances of any deal are slim.
With the deadline looming Friday, DHS funding is just days away from lapsing and triggering a shutdown. Here's what that would mean for DHS, which includes not only border agents but also airport-security officers and emergency-management functions.
Why is DHS the only department on a shutdown clock right now?
Congress deliberately split DHS off from the rest of the government's appropriations, and it is currently being funded on a short-term continuing resolution that expires Friday, Feb. 13. The move reflected unresolved disagreements over immigration enforcement and oversight. Rather than delay funding for other parts of the government, congressional leaders opted to pass 11 of the 12 annual appropriations bills and isolate the DHS fight.
What happens to immigration enforcement?
Under federal law, employees may work during a shutdown only if their jobs are deemed essential or are funded outside the annual appropriations process. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both part of DHS, would continue working in a shutdown because they are considered essential law-enforcement agencies.
Crucially, if there is a funding lapse, those agencies also have access to pre-existing funds from President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which became law last year and provided $75 billion for ICE and $65 billion for CBP in mandatory, multiyear funding. This means most staff could continue to be paid even if the current stopgap funding bill expires, lessening pressure on lawmakers to resolve the impasse.
How is TSA affected?
Transportation Security Administration airport employees would continue working, but without pay. Travelers could face longer security lines and flight delays if there is a longer shutdown and staffing shortages develop because of missed paychecks.
DHS workers are scheduled to receive their next full paycheck on Feb. 17 for work completed through Feb. 7. The next paycheck, due March 3, would cover work through Feb. 21 and would be a partial paycheck for affected employees if funding lapses this week. All government employees typically receive backpay once a shutdown ends.
How is FEMA affected?
The Federal Emergency Management Agency still has around $8 billion in its Disaster Relief Fund, according to documents viewed by The Wall Street Journal, which would allow critical, lifesaving emergency operations to continue even if federal funding lapses. Its broader programs and administrative support would largely pause, with personnel being furloughed. Nonessential grant approval would also pause.
How is the Coast Guard affected?
The Coast Guard is the only military branch not funded as part of the Department of Defense appropriations bill but instead through DHS. As a result, active-duty personnel would continue to work, but without pay. Essential operations such as search-and-rescue missions would continue, while administrative services would be paused.
What about other parts of DHS?
Most DHS headquarters staff, policy offices and oversight units aren't considered essential and would be furloughed. The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which investigates allegations of abuse or misconduct by immigration agents, typically furloughs most of its staff. Policy offices that write long-term rules and guidance close. Many audits by the department's inspector general are paused. Freedom of Information Act requests are generally not processed during a shutdown, limiting public access to DHS records.
What conditions are Democrats demanding?
To back a DHS funding package, Democrats are pushing for requirements that would mandate body cameras and visible identification for ICE and CBP agents, limit the use of masks during operations, and require judge-signed warrants before entering homes. They also want to formally protect schools, hospitals and churches from enforcement actions.
In addition, they are seeking to force DHS to direct some of its mandatory funding toward oversight offices, including civil-rights investigators, so those functions don't shut down during future funding lapses.
How are Republicans responding?
Republican leaders argue that the proposed measures would hamper enforcement and expose agents to harassment or doxxing. Instead, they are using the Feb. 13 deadline to push their own priorities, including cutting off DHS grants to jurisdictions that refuse to cooperate with ICE and preserving agent anonymity during operations.
This explanatory article may be periodically updated.
Write to Anvee Bhutani at anvee.bhutani@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 12, 2026 08:00 ET (13:00 GMT)
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