Congress may have 'shut down' DHS, but ICE has money to spare

Congress is withholding funds from the Department of Homeland Security over immigration enforcement concerns. But ICE remains flush with cash.

As lawmakers debate withholding funding for immigration enforcement, they face a financial reality: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) already has enough cash to operate through the end of President Donald Trump's second term.

Democrats and some Republicans are refusing to fund the annual budget for ICE's parent, the Department of Homeland Security, over concerns about the president's aggressive approach to immigration enforcement.

They're demanding deportation officers stop masking in public, stop making arrests in sensitive locations like schools and end the practice of entering homes without a judicial warrant.

The White House has so far rejected the demands, and Homeland Security has been left without a funding allocation for the 2026 fiscal year, resulting in a partial shutdown of the federal government that began Feb. 13. Homeland Security is the parent of more than a dozen different agencies including the Transportation Security Administration, which is responsible for airport security, and FEMA, which deals with disaster response.

But ICE, whose workers are considered essential and stay on the job during a shutdown, isn't hurting for money.