Recent immigration enforcement violence has led to a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which encompasses important agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Democrats in the House are demanding limitations on the actions of ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) following the deaths of Minnesota residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good. 

The primary issue behind these shutdowns is that the agencies Democrats actually want temporarily shut down–ICE and CBP–are still fully funded, meaning they can continue to function regardless. Republicans have highlighted the TSA and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as two major agencies whose functions will be severely disrupted by the DHS shutdown. Specifically, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) made a statement to NBC News that is a widely shared Republican viewpoint: “ICE is fully funded. The Border Patrol is fully funded. What they’re doing is hurting TSA agents, hurting air traffic controllers that would get a pay raise, keeping men and women from the Coast Guard from getting paid, making sure we can’t fully fund FEMA.”

Perhaps, given this information, the shutdown seems illogical. Perhaps it appears as though Democrats are intentionally harming government workers to make a statement. Perhaps it seems petty.

But this shutdown, as well as the full shutdown that had preceded it in Oct. 2025, is an invaluable symbol of our current state of American rigidity. It is undeniable that federal workers should be getting paid and it is completely unfair that they are being sacrificed for the sake of political messaging. Yet, it is an important representation of the harm being committed by the Trump administration, where the political left feels that it is legitimately less harmful for thousands of Americans to go unpaid than for the Trump administration to follow through with its current operations. 

It feels incredibly frustrating that these are our two choices. When did it become democratic to have to choose between state-sanctioned repression and violence and cutting off thousands of Americans’ resources to live? 

As White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, points fingers at the Democrats for the DHS shutdown, it is important to note that the events that preceded this shutdown were legitimately life or death. Two Americans literally lost their lives and thousands more live in fear daily, all as an extension of Trump’s political messaging. The idea that what the Democrats are currently doing is worse than the actions of the Trump administration is the type of delusional messaging that is currently being shoved down Americans’ throats as a means to protect the Trump regime. 

In thinking about where we go from here, it is easy to feel pessimistic and riddled with hopeless curiosity. What can the average American even do? Can we even trust our congresspeople to represent and fight for us?

The answers to these questions remain ambiguous.

Nonetheless, I think it is worth it to remain hopeful for the potential that this shutdown leaves politicians, regardless of party, with one message: the American people refuse to back down– bowing to the Trump regime means nothing when its people remain so resilient.