The DHS shutdown is coming. Why Travelers Should Be Responsible for Impact.
The Department of Homeland Security is about to close after a political row in Congress over immigration enforcement.
The situation has the potential to impact many Americans — including travelers, boaters, hurricane victims and tens of thousands of DHS employees — for an unknown period of time. Amid intense and slow-moving negotiations between Democrats and the White House, it is unclear how long the shutdown, which involves a small but important part of the federal government, will last.
Importantly, DHS includes the Transportation Security Administration, the federal government agency primarily responsible for airport security. During the record shutdown last year, many TSA employees slept in their cars, received eviction notices, lost childcare services and sold their blood and plasma as their payments were delayed.
Although they were expected to continue operating, TSA staff absences have increased, causing flight disruptions. Flight delays and cancellations have also been caused by air traffic control issues, which will not happen this time as the shutdown will not affect the Department of Transportation.
TSA Acting Director Ha Nguyen McNeill told lawmakers on February 11 that the nearly 61,000 workers at more than 430 commercial airports who will be affected by the end of funding will no longer face it.
“Some are still recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown,” he said. We cannot explain it in another incident like this. It would be careless.”
Despite that request, Congress left the city a day later without an agreement to fund the DHS, which has been widely watched since the federal killed two Minnesotans in separate incidents last month. The agency’s budget was set to expire after Friday, February 13.
Since Alex Pretti, 37, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents, Democrats have united around demands to reform DHS, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and Customs and Border Protection, or CBP. They are pushing for mask bans and stricter use-of-force standards, as well as requirements for body cameras and judicial warrants for immigration raids. Republicans have pointed out that several of those questions are non-starters, especially the ban on wearing masks, which they say could lead to agents being fired.
The shutdown will force DHS to reduce its operations and delay the pay of many employees. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for example, has warned that the crisis will “severely impair” his ability to reimburse states for disaster relief costs.
However, many of DHS’s law enforcement functions, including immigration enforcement, will continue. Lawmakers have noted in recent days that ICE, which often stays on the job during the shutdown, already has more money to spend related to President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.”
Because the partial shutdown will only apply to DHS, other services and programs affected during the longest shutdown on record last year will be protected from political disruption. Food stamps, air traffic controllers and the military (except the Coast Guard, which falls under DHS) will not be affected.
But as was the case with the 2025 shutdown, the longer it drags on, the worse the pain will be for Americans. Many lawmakers plan to spend the next week outside of Washington, with some traveling to Germany for a security conference. Congress does not have another vote scheduled until February 23.
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.
This article first appeared in USA TODAY: DHS shutdown is coming. Why travelers should consider impact.
Reporting by Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
