President Donald Trump intends to shield his sweeping immigration enforcement operations from the effects of the government shutdown, as well as other key facets of his policy agenda, Politico reported Wednesday.
Through a series of interviews with former and current White House officials and analysis of agency documents, Politico learned what programs and offices Trump plans to keep intact—and spoiler alert, they’re not the essential government programs that Americans rely on.
The Department of Homeland Security expanded the number of employees it is permitted to retain during a shutdown by 2,300, and has plans to keep 95 percent of its total employees in the office during the shutdown. Two years ago, it was only allowed to keep 88 percent.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, charged with carrying out Trump’s sweeping raids for undocumented immigrants and extrajudicial deportations, will continue to operate without interruption, two administration officials told Politico.
“ICE will be fine during a shutdown,” one of the administration officials told Politico. “Most of what ICE does will continue.” Border Control would also remain mostly operational.
In previous shutdowns, the Commerce Department and U.S. Trade Representative’s office were deemed non-essential—but this time, both have announced their intention to continue working on Trump’s economic policy agenda.
Commerce has indicated that it will continue to allow import licensing for steel and aluminum, which was not a protected activity under the agency’s 2023 shutdown plan. The USTR will keep administration tariff programs running using 60 percent of its workforce, compared to the 40 percent it would have retained under its 2024 plan.
NASA’s Artemis moonshot program will also continue to receive funding, as will the Department of the Interior’s processing of applications for drilling permits.
Meanwhile, Trump intends to target Democrats—and punish Americans—by stripping federal programs that actually help people.
That means hundreds of thousands of federal workers will be sent home from the Social Security Administration, the Health and Human Services Department, the Department of Education, and other federal agencies. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has suspended operations, and the Federal Drug Administration has halted its long-term food safety initiatives and pre-market safety reviews of novel animal food ingredients.
Additionally, if you are one of the estimated 200,000 Americans who filed for an extension on filing your tax returns, the deadline is still October 15—but if you have any questions about that, you may struggle to get a hold of an actual IRS employee in their office.
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