dhs shutdown is now at the center of a fresh White House push to end what it calls a “senseless and dangerous” lapse in funding, laid out in a formal letter dated March 17, 2026 (ET) from Washington. The letter, addressed to Senators Susan Collins and Katie Britt, describes negotiations with Democratic congressional leadership and lists specific operational changes the Administration says it is willing to make on immigration enforcement. The White House says the Department of Homeland Security shut down after February 13 and urges continued talks to reopen the department.
White House to Collins and Britt: negotiations ongoing, but “good-faith” gap remains
In the March 17, 2026 (ET) letter, White House officials write that they are responding to a request from Collins and Britt with “the latest status of negotiations with Democratic congressional leadership. ” The message signals urgency, stating the Administration looks forward to partnering with the senators to end the shutdown.
The letter states that before the lapse, Republican and Democratic leadership, appropriators, and the Trump Administration negotiated a bipartisan package of appropriations bills that included a bipartisan agreement to provide full-year funding for DHS, and that the package passed the House on a bipartisan basis. It then claims that before passage in the Senate, congressional Democrats declined to vote for the bill they negotiated and pushed Congress into a ten-day clean extension of DHS funding.
The White House letter also lays out a detailed sequence of negotiation steps. It says Congress passed the DHS funding extension on February 4, 2026 (ET), and that five days later Democrats released a list of demands on February 9, 2026 (ET). The letter adds that Democrats produced legislative text of those demands on February 7, 2026 (ET), and argues that most of the demands “would make it impossible” to fully protect American citizens from “dangerous criminal aliens” and would expose law enforcement and their families to greater threats of violence.
Dhs Shutdown negotiations: timeline and the enforcement changes already announced
The letter states the Administration sent a document explaining its counterproposal on February 9, 2026 (ET), and followed up with legislative text on February 11, 2026 (ET). It further says that on February 12, 2026 (ET), White House Border Czar Tom Homan “explicitly ended the surge operation in Minnesota. ” The letter adds that Homan instituted several changes to immigration enforcement activities, including ending ICE roving patrols, updating protocols for handling “unlawful agitators, ” deploying body-worn cameras, and providing advanced notice to and advanced cooperation with local law enforcement during operations.
After the lapse began, the White House says Democrats responded on February 16, 2026 (ET) by proposing “effectively their original offer again. ” The letter continues: the Administration later transmitted another counteroffer, and on March 16, 2026 (ET), Democrats responded with a counteroffer that the White House says still does not show a “good faith attempt to compromise. ”
Separately, the letter says the Administration’s position was “repeatedly mischaracterized” on the Senate floor on March 12, 2026 (ET).
Offer on the table: codifying operational guidelines and expanding body-worn cameras
The White House letter says that throughout the process, the Administration has offered to codify improved operational guidelines for immigration enforcement, in addition to updates that were “negotiated, agreed to, and passed through the House on a bipartisan basis. ”
One specific improvement described is an expansion of body-worn camera use by DHS law enforcement undertaking immigration enforcement operations, with an exception for undercover operations. The letter also references increased congressional oversight, though the text provided is truncated at the point it begins describing retention requirements.
What’s next
The White House frames the moment as a push to close remaining gaps through continued negotiations with Democratic congressional leadership, while working with Senators Collins and Britt to move a deal forward. With dhs shutdown continuing after February 13, the Administration’s letter positions its proposed enforcement changes and oversight measures as the narrow terrain where it says an agreement could still be reached in the days ahead.
