Funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security expired on Feb. 13, and lawmakers appear no closer to ending the impasse over requested changes to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement spending bill than they did two weeks ago when a 10-day stopgap measure was enacted on Feb. 3.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides funding for America’s disaster response and cleanup, as well as projects to make infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather events, is $32 billion.
“FEMA [funding] it’s caught up in … the whole immigration issue,” says Chad Berginnis, executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers. His organization has long advocated for the agency to live outside the Department of Homeland Security because its priorities are often overshadowed by those of its parent, in the current case, immigration enforcement. In addition, FEMA must compete with other units within the department. The emergency management agency is not “as effective, as nimble or as sociable” as it would be as a separate entity, Berginnis told ENR.
The association and other groups say, however, that FEMA’s ability to respond to disasters will not be immediately affected by the shutdown. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, arguments that the Department of Homeland Security must be funded to make FEMA resources available are without merit. The emergency response agency’s main fund for responding to disasters, the Disaster Relief Fund, currently contains about $9 billion, which groups say is enough to cover any short-term disaster.
Also, lawmakers always have the option of passing a supplemental disaster relief bill if negotiations over the Homeland Security department drag on, Noah Patton, the coalition’s director of disaster recovery, said in a Feb. 9 memo to members.
stagnation
Democrats in Congress have demanded more accountability on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, body cameras for all officers and no masking, in exchange for their support to pass the department’s funding bill, the last remaining spending measure for fiscal year 2026. Senate Democrats had worked with GOP leaders to craft a spending bill that called for more training for officers, but withdrew their support for two citizens of Minneapolis, USA. agents
On CBS News’ Face the Nation on February 22, White House Border Czar Tom Homan said 1,000 agents have now left the city, with more expected to leave over the next week.
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But while the Trump administration says the enforcement operation is winding down, city officials say their community is still reeling from the nearly two-month-old attack.
At a press conference on February 13, the city’s mayor, Jacob Frey (Democratic Farmers Labor Party), said that the financial impact of the operation in Minneapolis since December had reached $203.1 million by the end of January.
Construction has been one of the industries affected, said the city’s emergency management director, Rachel Sayre. According to a preliminary impact assessment, January 2026 was an “outlier” compared to the same month in previous years over the past decade. The number and value of building permits issued were the lowest recorded in January of the last decade.
Tim Worke, CEO of the Minnesota chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, said the influx of immigration enforcement agents has not caused “significant disruptions” to construction jobs among his group’s members, in large part because Minnesota has strict regulations related to prevailing wages and “some of the toughest regulations in the country dealing with an undocumented workforce.”
Both Worke and a local union leader said they had heard anecdotal reports that homebuilders, as well as smaller businesses, were more broadly affected, with some workers afraid to come to work.
But Worke questioned the need to bring 3,000 officers into the city when “the vast majority of community workers are here legally.” He added: “People are traumatized.”
