The White House’s botched response to the shooting of an anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement activist in Minnesota has turned a majority of Americans against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. This has emboldened Democrats to shut down the Department of Homeland Security until a laundry list of demands is met. Some of the demands are reasonable, but most are not. However the dispute is resolved in Congress, Democrat-controlled states are overreacting and rushing to implement the same far-left, open borders policies that led so many voters to abandon their party in 2024.

DHS shut down at midnight, as the Senate adjourned Friday without passing a reauthorization of the department’s spending authority. Democrats’ ire is directed at ICE and Customs and Border Protection, but these agencies will not be affected by the shutdown because their funding was boosted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Instead, Coast Guard employees will not be paid and training exercises will be halted; Federal Emergency Management Agency work will be stopped; and the Transportation Security Administration will work without pay.