WASHINGTON (AP) — A disruption in reimbursements to states for disaster relief costs. Delays in cybersecurity response and training. And missed paychecks for the agents who screen passengers and bags at the nation's airports, which could lead to unscheduled absences and longer wait times for travelers.
Those were just some of the potential ramifications of a looming funding lapse at the Department of Homeland Security, according to officials who testified before a House panel on Wednesday.
Congress has approved full-year funding for the vast majority of the federal government, but it only passed a short-term funding patch for the Department of Homeland Security that extends through Friday. In response to the killing of two American citizens in Minneapolis and other incidents, Democrats have insisted that any funding bill for the department come with changes to immigration enforcement operations.
A Homeland Security shutdown appeared increasingly likely on Wednesday, the second day in a row with little apparent progress in negotiations between Democrats and the White House. Democrats are demanding new curbs on ICE including better identification, the use of judicial warrants and an end to racial profiling, among other asks. They are still waiting to hear from the White House after rejecting an initial offer late Monday night from the administration as “incomplete and insufficient.”
As the two sides remained far apart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., urged Democrats and the White House to find agreement.
“I think it’s important that the people at the negotiating table double down, sharpen their pencils and strike a deal,” Thune said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he was at the White House late Wednesday and the administration “is sending over a few terms.”
“We're very hopeful that can be worked out,” Johnson said, adding that he put House Republicans on notice to expect a vote Friday to keep Homeland Security funded.
Meanwhile, Republicans are emphasizing that a Homeland Security shutdown would not curtail the work of the agencies Democrats are most concerned about. Trump's tax and spending cut bill passed last year gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement about $75 billion to expand detention capacity and beef up enforcement operations.
“Removal operations will continue. Wall construction will continue,” said Rep. Mark Amodei, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Rather, agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, the Secret Service, Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency would take the biggest hit, he said. Officials from those agencies appeared before the House subcommittee to explain the potential impact of a Homeland Security shutdown.
Rep. Henry Cuellar, the ranking Democrat on the panel, said the tragic loss of two American citizens in Minneapolis — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — should concern every lawmaker. He said that strong borders and a respect for human life are not competing values.
“When enforcement actions lead to outcomes like that, we have an obligation to ask the hard question and to make sure our laws and policies are working as intended,” Cuellar said.
He said on Homeland Security funding that “we were almost there. We were there, Democrats and Republicans and everybody, but the second shooting brought different dynamics. I think we can get there to address that.”
About 90% of the department's employees would continue working in a shutdown, but they would do so without pay. Vice Admiral Thomas Allan of the U.S. Coast Guard said law enforcement and emergency response missions continue during a shutdown, but that the possibility of missed paychecks creates significant financial hardships.
“Shutdowns cripple morale and directly harm our ability to recruit and retain the talented Americans we need to meet growing demands,” Allan said.
Ha Nguyen McNeill of the Transportation Security Administration shared a similar concern. She estimated about 95% of the agency's 61,000 workers would continue to work, but potentially go without a paycheck depending upon the length of a shutdown. She noted that they just went through a lengthy shutdown last fall.
“We heard reports of officers sleeping in their cars at airports to save money on gas, selling their blood and plasma and taking on second jobs to make ends meet,” she said. “...Some are just recovering from the financial impact of the 43-day shutdown. Many are still reeling from it. We cannot put them through another such experience.”
Homeland Security also includes the agency charged with working to protect the public and private sector from a broad range of cyber threats. Madhu Gottumukkala, acting director of that agency, said a shutdown would “degrade our capacity to provide timely and actionable guidance to help partners defend their networks.”
“I want to be clear, when the government shuts down, cyber threats do not,” he said.
Gregg Phillips, an associate administrator at FEMA, said its disaster relief fund has sufficient balances to continue emergency response activities during a shutdown, but would become seriously strained in the event of a catastrophic disaster. He said that while the agency continues to respond to threats like flooding and winter storms, long-term planning and coordination with state and local partners is “irrevocably impacted.”
For example, he said a lapse would disrupt training for first responders at the National Disaster & Emergency Management University in Maryland.
“The import of these trainings cannot be measured,” Phillips said. “And their absence will be felt in our local communities."
At the Secret Service, “the casual observer will see no difference,” said Matthew Quinn, the agency's deputy director. But he said reform efforts taking place at the Secret Service are affected.
“Delayed contracts, diminished hiring and halted new programs will be the result,” Quinn said.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., meets with reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - People work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The Pentagon allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
The confusing arc of events began as the FAA announced it was shutting down all flight traffic over the city on the U.S.-Mexico border for 10 days, stranding some travelers, but the closure ended up only lasting a few hours. The Trump administration said it stemmed from the FAA and Pentagon working to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, which are not uncommon along the southern border.
One of the people said the laser was deployed near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA, which decided then to close the airspace to ensure commercial air safety. Others familiar with the matter said the technology was used despite a meeting scheduled for later this month between the Pentagon and the FAA to discuss the issue.
While the restrictions were short-lived in the city of nearly 700,000 people, it is unusual for an entire airport to shut down even for a short time. Stranded travelers with luggage lined up at airline ticket counters and car rental desks before the order was lifted.
Normal flights resumed after seven arrivals and seven departures were canceled. Some medical evacuation flights also had to be rerouted.
Jorge Rueda, 20, and Yamilexi Meza, 21, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, had their morning flight to Portland, Oregon, canceled, so they were losing part of their Valentine's Day weekend trip.
Rueda said he was glad that “10 days turned into two hours.” They were booked on an evening flight out of El Paso.
The investigation into last year’s midair collision near Washington, D.C., between an airliner and Army helicopter that killed 67 people highlighted how the FAA and Pentagon were not always working well together.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the FAA and the Army did not share safety data with each other about the alarming number of close calls around Reagan National Airport and failed to address the risks.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a former Army helicopter pilot who serves on committees focused on aviation and the armed services, said the issue Wednesday was the latest example of “the lack of coordination that’s endemic in this Trump administration.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said he would request a briefing from the FAA on the incident.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso, said neither her office nor local officials received any advance notice of the closure. After it was lifted, she said “the information coming from the federal government does not add up."
“I believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,” Escobar said at a news conference.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier that the airspace was closed as the Defense Department and the FAA halted an incursion by Mexican cartel drones and “the threat has been neutralized.”
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, FAA and Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Trump administration official insisted the agencies were in lockstep to protect national security and pointed to Duffy’s statement. The Pentagon said it had nothing to add to its statement that largely mirrored Duffy’s.
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose congressional district covers an area that stretches about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) along Texas' border with Mexico, said cartel drone sightings are common.
“For any of us who live and work along the border, daily drone incursions by criminal organizations is everyday life for us. It’s a Wednesday for us,” Gonzales said.
Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress in July that cartels are using drones nearly every day to transport drugs across the border and surveil Border Patrol agents. More than 27,000 drones were detected within 500 meters (1,600 feet) of the southern border in the last six months of 2024, he said, mostly at night.
What is “extremely rare” is the closure of an entire airport over a security issue, according to a former chief security officer at United Airlines.
Officials usually will try to take security measures to isolate the risk if a specific plane or airline is threatened rather than shut down the airport, said Rich Davis, now a senior security adviser at risk mitigation company International SOS.
Asked about the drone explanation provided by U.S. officials, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had “no information about the use of drones on the border.” She noted that if U.S. authorities have more information, they should contact Mexico’s government.
Mexican defense and navy secretaries planned to talk with officials from U.S. Northern Command in a meeting Wednesday in Washington attended by several other countries, Sheinbaum told reporters. Sheinbaum said the Mexican officials would “listen” in the meeting and her government would look into “the exact causes” of the closure.
El Paso is a hub of cross-border commerce alongside Ciudad Juárez. That Mexican city is home to about 1.5 million people, and some of its residents are accustomed to taking advantage of facilities, including airports, on the U.S. side of the border.
That easy access to the United States also has made Juarez, like other border cities, attractive to Mexico’s drug cartels seeking to safeguard their smuggling routes for drugs and migrants headed north and cash and guns moving to the south.
El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson told reporters that he did not hear about the closure until after the alert was issued.
“Decisions made without notice and coordination puts lives at risk and creates unnecessary danger and confusion,” Johnson said. “This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9/11.”
The airport describes itself as the gateway to west Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Southwest, United, American and Delta are among the carriers that operate flights there.
A similar 10-day temporary flight restriction for special security reasons remained in place Wednesday around Santa Teresa, New Mexico, which is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of the El Paso airport. FAA officials did not immediately explain why that restriction remained.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a New Mexico Democrat, said in a statement that he was seeking answers from the FAA and the Trump administration "about why the airspace was closed in the first place without notifying appropriate officials, leaving travelers to deal with unnecessary chaos.”
Travel plans on both sides of the border were disrupted.
María Aracelia was pushing two roller suitcases across the pedestrian bridge from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso on Wednesday morning. She had a round-trip flight to Illinois scheduled for the afternoon.
After receiving a text at 4 a.m. telling her about the 10-day closure, she scrambled to try to find other options, even how to get to another airport. Then came a notification that the El Paso airport had reopened.
“This is stressful, and there isn’t time to make so many changes, especially if you need to get back for work," Aracelia said.
Kim, Finley, Jalonick and Toropin reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Darlene Superville, Mike Balsamo and Konstantin Toropin in Washington; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; María Verza in Mexico City; and Christian Torres Chávez in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.
A plane flies over El Paso International Airport, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
People stand in line at check-in counters at El Paso International Airport, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
Rosie Leal sits at El Paso International Airport, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
Jorge Rueda, 20, and Yamilexi Meza, 21, who arrived from Las Cruces, N.M., walk through a parking lot at El Paso International Airport in El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Morgan Lee)
People cross the Paso del Norte International Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2026, on the border with El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Cars cross the "Paso del Norte" International Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2026, on the border with El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
A U.S. Border Patrol patrol along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, near the Paso del Norte International Bridge, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Cars cross the "Paso del Norte" International Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, bottom, and El Paso, Texas, top, Wednesday Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Christian Chavez)
Passengers wait in line at the El Paso International Airport after all flights were grounded on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (KFOX via AP)
Passengers wait in line at the El Paso International Airport after all flights were grounded on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. (KFOX via AP)
FILE - A Federal Aviation Administration sign hangs in the tower at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, March 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
