WASHINGTON, D.C. –– House Committee on Homeland Security members are sounding the alarm on impacts of the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), caused by Senate Democrats’ refusal to pass the bipartisan, full-year DHS funding bill passed by the House in January. This concern follows an oversight hearing held by the Committee with leaders from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), who all testified that a DHS shutdown would undermine interagency coordination and hinder the Department’s ability to carry out its core mission effectively.  Since ICE and CBP received billions of dollars in funding through reconciliation, the shutdown disproportionately impacts the other DHS components responsible for disaster response, cybersecurity, transportation security, infrastructure protection, and more.
 
Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) joined One America News Network’s “The Real Story” and Real America’s Voice’s “America’s Voice Live,” Rep. Brad Knott (R-NC) joined Fox News’ “The Fox News Rundown,” Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) joined NewsNation’s “The Hill” and Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” and Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC) joined Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” and Fox News’ “Fox & Friends First,” to highlight the importance of supporting the mission of law enforcement, outline the important moments from last week’s oversight hearing, and call for an end to Democrats’ DHS shutdown.
 
Read highlights of their interviews below.
 

Watch Rep. Evans’ hit on OANN here and Real America’s Voice here.

 
On the consequences for law enforcement training and mission readiness, Rep. Evans said on OANN: 

“ICE is funded through the Department of Homeland Security, but you also have things like the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. This is police academy for all federal agencies. Things like the DEA, things like the Border Patrol, these agencies also go through federal law enforcement training. You have airport security. You have the Coast Guard, which keeps things from coming into the country through our maritime borders and our maritime infrastructure. You have FEMA, the emergency management system. Six months ago, Democrats were howling that Republicans didn’t want to help Americans in disaster zones. But now it’s Democrats who are defunding all of these things because they have never left their defund the police roots behind.” 
 
On ICE arresting public safety threats and those with a final order of removal, Rep. Evans said on Real America’s Voice: 

“Supposedly, only 40 percent [of those] in custody have violent criminal backgrounds, which is true, but what they don’t tell you is what falls under the nonviolent criminal category, which is things like selling drugs, theft, fraud…human trafficking. So, when you actually count those other crimes, ICE is doing what they said they’re supposed to be doing, which is going after the criminals, the worst of the worst, the people that are in our communities committing crimes. It’s about 60 percent of those people [that] are in ICE detention right now. And as the folks mentioned…in the hearing, if ICE is going out to arrest a nonviolent human trafficker, and they contact somebody else who’s illegally present in the country, [that] has a final order of deportation, they don’t turn a blind eye. They also take that person into custody, as well, and so that accounts for the vast majority of the other folks that are in ICE custody right now, either criminals or people that have signed final orders of removal from our country.” 
 

 Listen to Rep. Knott’s interview on Fox News Radio here.

 
On the shutdown’s effects on DHS’s workforce, Rep. Knott said: 

“When we talk about the Department of Homeland Security, there are, of course, other elements to that department. Think about TSA, think about FEMA. That’s a very important, that’s a very important region of the department for my state of North Carolina, which is still reeling from several hurricanes. And in terms of the immigration enforcement, again, they are making demands that are just flatly unreasonable, and when they’re fleshed out, the American people reject them… Until we can get some sort of common sense breakthrough, I think this is going to be something that’s a real, a real problem.”
 

Watch Rep. Gonzales’ hit on NewsNation here and Newsmax here.

 
On negotiations for DHS funding and the need for more cooperation between local, state, and federal law enforcement, Rep. Gonzales said on NewsNation: 

“The body cams make a lot of sense. You know, today, I asked the ICE director if they would be willing to release more footage, and he agreed to that. I thought that was a big moment because I think transparency has been one of the staples in the Trump administration… We’ve built it out when we passed One Big Beautiful Bill, and [Congress] has passed 11 out of the 12 appropriations bills… No matter what happens, ICE is going to be taken care of, and so is 94 percent of the government.”
 
“These 80 counties that are now allowing ICE into the jails, that works, that’s successful. That takes some of the anxiousness out of a community, and it gives them real facts. ‘Hey, these are the people we’re going after.’ It’s not a random search type of deal. It’s a systematic search. We’re working with local and state law enforcement. We need more of that across the country and less of allowing activists to try to spin things of what is happening or isn’t happening on the ground.”
 
On the broad implications of DHS’s shutdown on Americans’ safety, Rep. Gonzales said on Newsmax: 

“This is all about politics, and the Democrats are playing a very dangerous game of chicken. And if something were to happen in this country, like an emergency, where FEMA has to respond, and we’re not paying our FEMA employees, that is dangerous… CISA is the organization that takes care of our computers. If there’s a cyberattack, that has happened, we saw that with oil companies in years past, these things are very real. Not to mention the Coast Guard, who’s doing an amazing job. This week, the Admiral of the Coast Guard testified before my committee. I asked him how many Venezuelan tankers they’ve taken down; they’ve already taken nine down. They’re changing the war on drugs. And here we have the Democrats holding it up… This is all about politics and stopping President Trump’s agenda.”
 

Watch Rep. Biggs’ hit on Newsmax here and Fox News here.

 
On the use of anti-law enforcement rhetoric during the Committee’s hearing last week, Rep. Biggs said on Newsmax: 

“Well, I thought the rhetoric from the other side was absolutely disgusting. You know, I support our men and women that serve every day, that go out, leave their families, and put up with this kind of drama. And I think it’s unfortunate that they have to do that…  I support my local law enforcement. And I’m grateful for what they do every day.”
 
“We have to continue to try to uphold and take care of our law enforcement and ensure that we have law and order.”
 
On the DHS shutdown, Rep. Biggs said on Fox News: 
 
“This shutdown, it hurts the American people. And the bottom line is we can’t afford instability within homeland security. So I think the Republican Party, they are the party of common sense. And I think if we can come to a good resolution, we would sit down and be willing to talk. But the demands, what the Democrats are asking [for], puts our citizens at risk.”
 
Background:

In a shutdown, many of the Department’s more than 250,000 employees, who dedicate their lives to keeping the American people safe, are forced to work without pay. Homeland Security and House Appropriations Republicans issued statements condemning Senate Democrats’ actions, warning that the funding lapse puts the safety and security of Americans at risk.
 
The House passed six final appropriations bills, including a bipartisan agreement to fund DHS for a full fiscal year in January. The legislation provided funding for body cameras, deescalation training, and resources for DHS’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to enhance transparency. Additionally, the House-passed version included vital funding to support the personnel and missions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Transportation Security Administration (TSA), U.S. Coast Guard, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), and more.
 
Last week, the House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee also held a hearing on the impacts of a shutdown for DHS, where leaders from FEMA, TSA, CISA, and the U.S. Coast Guard emphasized similar concerns about the operational and security risks caused by a lapse in funding. 
 

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