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ICE, Interrupted

With D.H.S. funding set to expire, Democrats—newly unified, and with a favorable polling wind at their backs—are prepared to risk a shutdown over reforming ICE, betting that Republicans and a politically weakened Trump will absorb the blame.

Catherine Cortez Masto
Nevada Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a key past opponent of shutdown brinksmanship, has become the public face of the ICE reform effort, leaning into her background as a criminal prosecutor and Nevada attorney general. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images
Leigh Ann Caldwell
February 11, 2026

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Funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires in just two days, and Democrats, for once, are not wracked with worry and self-doubt. In fact, for perhaps the first time since Donald Trump returned to the White House, the party is in lockstep on strategy and confident they are on the right side of public opinion—even if that means shutting down a federal agency for the third time since Trump’s second inauguration. Republicans, meanwhile, are on shaky ground, reluctant to defend dismally unpopular ICE operations and unsure whether to knock down or support Democrats’ demands.