The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been on its back for 47 days, almost 500 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers have quit and travelers have been experiencing the longest lines at airports in U.S. history, all to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol from getting funding — when the two agencies were already funded.

It started out with Senate Democrats demanding judicial warrants for deportations, no masks for ICE officers, a use of force standard and a ban on alleged racial profiling after the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota at the hands of the ICE and Border Patrol officers they were obstructing.

But most of those reforms would not have saved Good or Pretti’s lives: They were U.S. citizens not subject to deportation, masks played no role in their deaths and they were White and not subjected to racial profiling. They were obstructing federal law enforcement and confronted them, leading to their deaths.

The only reform that might have made a difference was a use of force standard, but DHS already had one, which is the constitutional use of force standard that allows police to use force, including deadly force, to defend themselves. Congress couldn’t have banned the right for officers to protect themselves if it tried.

In any event, there weren’t the votes for those proposals, and so at the end of the day Democrats’ demands were removed in a Senate measure that passed on unanimous consent on March 27, along with ICE and Border Patrol funding, funding the Department except for those two agencies which already had funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Part of the rationale for the shutdown was to drain the additional billions of dollars of funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act out of those two agencies, ICE and U.S. Border Patrol.

This is the end result of isolating DHS funding after the tragedies in Minnesota when the other 11 bills were consolidated into three minibuses:  H.R. 6938, H.R. 7148 and H.R. 5371.

That’s unpleasant. Nobody wants to talk about it.

But that’s why we are where we are: DHS was isolated and created a prime target for Senate Democrats.

Now, House Republicans are pushing for a stopgap funding bill to fund DHS for two months, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declared it “dead on arrival” even though none of his reforms will get done either way. But Schumer doesn’t care because he believes Republicans will be blamed.

The truth is, if the House has the votes for a stopgap, then it likely has the votes to just re-boost ICE and Border Patrol funding via reconciliation. Perhaps House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) needs to get that on paper first, but that’s the way out of this.

Any remaining funds needed for the two agencies can just be pushed through another budget reconciliation bill. ICE and Border Patrol can be fully funded through remainder of President Donald Trump’s second term. If Republicans do that, then the agencies cannot be defunded through the end of 2028 no matter who wins in 2026.  

After the initial Senate deal, Schumer declared victory saying the agencies “should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms…” even though the bill to fund DHS he just supported got none of those reforms — and no bills coming up will either — and even if they were, President Trump would just veto them.  

Basically, the shutdown failed, but Republicans don’t seem to know how to declare victory and move on. In fact, shutdowns always fail: In 1995, 1996, 2013, 2018, 2019, 2025 and now 2026, if it could just end.

The only thing accomplished so far was Democrats didn’t have to go on the record voting to fund ICE and Border Patrol after the events in Minnesota. That’s it. That was the concession.

Otherwise, Schumer is potentially facing a tough reelection battle for 2028 should U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) run against him for the Democratic nomination for Senate.

Despite two shutdowns in less than a year, Ocasio-Cortez’ odds of winning have actually risen, with the smart money increasingly betting on Ocasio-Cortez, for example, betters on Kalshi give her a 60 percent chance of winning. If she runs, she likely wins, say the prediction markets.

In fact, Schumer’s numbers were better when he was working with President Trump to avoid shutdowns. But, maybe a few more shutdowns in 2027 and 2028 will fix it (or not).

Of course, the shutdown isn’t holding much of anything off, except of course for jets taking off and landing on time, while forcing government workers Democrats claim to protect to again work without pay for more than a month at TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service and the Coast Guard — all patriotic Americans who had no role in the dispute.

At the end of the day, that’s why Americans have all been waiting in long lines at airports — so Democrats could tell their radical base they “held the line” and didn’t vote to fund ICE. And, as Democrats still lead the 2026 Congressional generic ballot polls, they won’t pay a price for it — for now.

But Republicans, who no more have the votes to pass the full DHS funding bill in the Senate — that is, unless they finally want to break the filibuster — than Democrats have for their reforms, continue to pay a price for the shutdown every day.

Republicans are the ones with majorities to lose in 2026. Every election is a referendum on the incumbents. Every. One.

What Democrats should understand is that after 2026, especially if they win the House and/or the Senate, the political pendulum will swing the other way and permanent dysfunction and paralysis in Washington, D.C. could ultimately hurt them in 2028 or beyond. What goes around comes around.

— Robert Romano is the Executive Editor of Americans for Limited Government.