The Department of Homeland Security is facing a severe operational crisis as funding lapsed Saturday, leaving critical agencies in limbo and suspending important oversight investigations — including a review of the Secret Service’s handling of last year’s assassination attempt against former President Trump.
With approximately 60% of the DHS Office of Inspector General’s workforce now furloughed, most audits and investigations have ground to a halt at precisely the moment when congressional scrutiny of immigration enforcement has intensified following two deadly shootings in Minneapolis last month.
Critical Oversight Functions Suspended
The shutdown has crippled the department’s internal watchdog, forcing the suspension of sensitive probes and creating accountability gaps across one of the government’s largest agencies. Only special agents like criminal investigators and personnel supported by secondary funding sources can continue working through the shutdown, according to documents obtained by Politico.
“IG offices are forced to pause oversight reviews, ceding valuable time on sensitive audits during shutdowns,” said Mark Greenblatt, who served as Department of the Interior inspector general from 2019 to 2025. The timing couldn’t be worse — the OIG had been conducting high-profile reviews of both the Secret Service’s security failures during the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump and DHS cybersecurity operations, both now on indefinite hold.
This isn’t the first time a shutdown has hampered oversight. During previous funding lapses, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) quietly furloughed most of its congressional relations team and blocked lawmakers from visiting immigration detention facilities, effectively cutting off congressional visibility into the agency’s operations, as multiple sources confirmed.
Uneven Impact Across Homeland Security
The shutdown’s effects aren’t being felt equally across all DHS components. ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will continue operating thanks to funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year. But other critical agencies like the Transportation Security Administration, Coast Guard, and Federal Emergency Management Agency are taking the hit — their employees continue working without pay until the shutdown ends, CBS News reported.
Why the impasse? Democrats have conditioned their support for DHS funding on reforms to ICE and CBP following two controversial deadly shootings by federal agents during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis last month. The standoff has left thousands of federal workers in financial uncertainty.
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency has for years urged Congress to establish authority for inspectors general to continue oversight during government shutdowns, but those calls have gone unheeded.
Political Tensions Escalating
Behind the scenes, tensions between DHS leadership and its watchdog were already simmering before the shutdown. Democratic lawmakers have accused DHS Secretary Kristi Noem of deliberately attempting to undermine the inspector general’s independence, claiming that “repeated tacit threats from your Office of the Secretary to DHS OIG may have already succeeded in weakening DHS OIG’s operational independence,” according to a letter obtained by reporters.
How long will the impasse last? That remains unclear as negotiations continue. What is certain is that with each passing day, the backlog of uninvestigated complaints grows, and the ability to hold one of the government’s most powerful departments accountable diminishes.
For now, the nation’s homeland security apparatus continues operating in a precarious state of semi-functionality — with its watchdog largely sidelined at a moment when oversight may be needed most.
