As the House Homeland Security Committee heard testimonies from top DHS officials on Tuesday, Republicans are warning Democrats about the consequences of a partial government shutdown.

Congress is facing yet another potential partial government shutdown this Friday as funding for the Department of Homeland Security is set to expire. Democrats have made their demands clear, stating that they will not fund DHS without Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, reform.

ICE, however, received billions of dollars in funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. But shutting down DHS funding will harm other agencies will harm other agencies funded through DHS.

If Democrats vote against funding for the department, FEMA and TSA operations could be at risk, Republicans argue.

“Another shutdown of DHS will disrupt important operations that include seizing illegal drugs, responding to natural disasters, combating child exploitation, arresting human traffickers, and preventing cyberattacks,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., told the Daily Signal.  

“Any sort of tragedy that happens in this country depends on the support from FEMA,” Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal outside the hearing room. “They’re here for an emergency.” 

When The Daily Signal asked about the impact a shutdown would have on FEMA and TSA specifically, Democrats did not seem concerned. 

Rep. Shri Thandar, D-Mich., who serves on the committee alongside Guest and Pfluger, said he is actually willing to leverage FEMA funding for Republicans to meet their demands. “That’s the leverage that we have,” he told the Daily Signal.  

“I would like Democratic leaders to stay firm and get some concessions that are meaningful…We should use every leverage that we have,” Thandar concluded.

Rep. Vince Fong, R-Calif., responded to this statement from Thandar by stating, “Public safety should never be used as a bargaining chip.”

“The decision by Democrats to shut down and stop funding homeland security agencies is reckless and is putting American lives at risk,” Fong told the Daily Signal.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., responded by focusing on ICE funding. “The President was able to operate despite the last shutdown,” he told The Daily Signal outside the hearing room.

“Our requirements are pretty clear. Stop the roaming patrols. Take off the masks. Go to judges if you’re going to seek warrants, and we will support your operations if they’re not going after nonviolent individuals,” Swalwell said outside the hearing, referencing the list of demands Democrats put out last week.

Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., told The Daily Signal that “[Democrats] will continue to play reckless political games at the expense and suffering of the American people—defunding TSA, FEMA, and denying Coloradans in my district clean drinking water and other vital services to push their anti-law enforcement agenda.”

“Make no mistake—their theatrics aren’t about saving lives or protecting families; they’re about political leverage, even if it weakens our public safety and disaster response,” concluded Evans.  

Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., seemed more willing to negotiate. “We want to reach an agreement to avoid that and prevent [defunding FEMA and TSA],” he told The Daily Signal outside the hearing. “That’s why we need the Republicans to offer a substantive response to what Democrats have put on the table.”

The post ‘That’s The Leverage’: Democrats Shrug Off FEMA and TSA Funding Concerns As Partial Shutdown Looms appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Former foreign service officer Simon Hankinson, who served at consulates in Ghana and Nairobi, among others, says Somali nationals routinely lied in their immigration applications to secure visas in the United States.

The post Former Consulate Official: Somali Nationals Routinely Lied to Get U.S. Visas appeared first on Breitbart.

New satellite imagery shows Iran has buried the entrances to a hardened tunnel complex at its Isfahan nuclear site, a move a U.S.-based watchdog said signals Tehran is “seriously concerned” about a strike or raid.

The post Satellite Imagery Shows Iran Sealing Isfahan Nuclear Tunnels — ‘Seriously Concerned’ About Strike appeared first on Breitbart.

Because of Democrat demands to prevent a government shutdown, House Republicans are accusing Senate Democrats of protecting illegal immigrants who vote in American elections.

Democrats are threatening to vote against legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which could force a partial shutdown of the federal government this Friday. Democrats have made several demands to keep the government open, including a measure to prohibit immigration enforcement operations near polling locations.

“If illegal aliens aren’t voting as Democrats claim, why would Schumer and Jeffries be afraid of immigration enforcement near polling locations?” Rep. Mark Harris told The Daily Signal. “I think the answer is pretty obvious to Americans.”

In a statement shared with The Daily Signal, House Speaker Mike Johnson added that those demands are being proposed by people “that don’t want any apprehensions of illegals.”

“And that’s part of the problem,” Johnson continued. “So, we’ve talked about things that are reasonable and achievable, and those just aren’t.”

Other demands made by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Sumer, D-N.Y., include Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, to adopt universal use-of-force standards, stop immigration operations near schools, require officers to identify themselves, and forbid agents from wearing masks.

Additional demands include opening the door for states to sue the DHS and barring DHS officers from entering private property without a judicial warrant. Johnson claimed the latter is “not a workable standard.”

“The idea that you would have a whole new layer of judicial warrant necessitated before you could apprehend and deport someone is not a workable standard,” Johnson stated.

Despite the pushback from House Republicans, Schumer has not indicated if he will de-escalate his demands in order to secure funding for DHS, which Johnson claims could place the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Border Patrol, the Secret Service, and the Transportation Security Administration in a “lurch.”

“We’ve got to keep government funded,” Johnson continued. “We have to keep the essential services going. It’s a very important time right now.”

Schumer did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

The post If Illegal Immigrants Do Not Vote in American Elections, Why Are Democrats Demanding No ICE Near Polling Places? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Tuesday on MS NOW's "Katy Tur Reports," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said unless Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is "reined in," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will shut down on Friday.

The post Jeffries: Unless ICE ‘Reined In,’ DHS Will Shutdown Friday appeared first on Breitbart.

Tuesday, on the "After Party" podcast, Breitbart News senior contributor and author of The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon Peter Schweizer talked about Mexican government officials "fanning the flames" of protests in the United States.

The post Schweizer: Mexican Government Officials Are ‘Fanning the Flames’ of Protests in the U.S. appeared first on Breitbart.

The Trump administration's EPA is set to rescind former President Barack Obama's "endangerment finding" that served as "the legal basis for federal greenhouse-gas regulation," according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The post Trump Admin to Repeal Obama’s ‘Endangerment Finding’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Telecom executives didn’t give satisfactory answers to senators when asked about assisting former special counsel Jack Smith’s team in scooping up phone data of members of Congress. 

Lawyers for AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon testified on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law about why they willingly cooperated with investigators’ demands, without notifying the Republican senators targeted.

Smith’s team gathered the toll data as part of his investigation into Donald Trump’s challenge to the 2020 election outcome, an operation dubbed “Arctic Frost.”

The Justice Department gained a nondisclosure order for the subpoena, meaning the members of Congress did not have to be notified that their phone records were being collected for the investigation.

Late last year, Senate Judiciary Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, released Smith’s subpoenas issued in 2023.

Smith’s subpoenas, directed at 34 individuals and 163 organizations, sought broad information, including the communications of several Republican senators, conservative organizations, and multiple individuals supporting Trump’s 2020 reelection. 

Here are four key takeaways from the hearing. 

1. ‘Worst Weaponization of Government in American History’

Subcommittee chairwoman Marsha Blackburn said Smith will have to answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee for “the worst weaponization of government in American history.”

“I’m determined to ensure that Jack Smith is held accountable to prevent another Arctic Frost from happening again,” Blackburn said. 

“Jack Smith took a page out of the old Russian playbook by saying, Give me the man, and I will give you the case against him. In this case, the man was President Trump, and hundreds of conservative Americans who supported him,” Blackburn said.

2. ‘Didn’t Bother’

Several senators noted that AT&T did not provide the information to Smith’s investigators upon realizing the potential clash with separation of powers laws.

AT&T began asking questions upon realizing that data on Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had been subpoenaed.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., asked David McAtee, AT&T’s senior executive vice president and general counsel, how the company flagged this.

“It was fairly obvious the subscriber name was Ted Cruz for Senate, so we put it together,” McAtee replied. 

Hawley noted a nondisclosure order didn’t stop AT&T from asking questions of the investigators. He later turned to Chris Miller, senior vice president and general counsel for Verizon, to ask, “Why didn’t you do any of this?”

“At that time, we did not train our subpoena analysts to do a searching inquiry into the subscriber associated with a particular number,” Miller answered. 

“You just didn’t bother to try and associate the phone number with any name?” Hawley followed.

“Senator, we respect the privacy of our customers,” Miller said. 

“Apparently not, because you turned over every piece of information from every senator sitting on this dais who got any illegal subpoena,” Hawley said. 

3. ‘Double Standard’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the Smith team didn’t follow up on AT&T’s question because it was a “fishing expedition.” But he accused the other companies of “folding like a cheap suit.”

Graham asked Miller about complying with the company’s contract with the Senate.

“That contract had a clause in it, that if anybody comes after a senator’s phone records, you will tell us so we can defend ourselves,” Graham said. 

He noted both his official Senate account and campaign account were provided to the Smith team.

Miller responded, “Senator, I would certainly agree, we have frustrated you.”

“No, failed me,” Graham interrupted. “You failed to honor the contract protecting all of us.”

Graham noted Democrats on the committee suggested the conduct was justified. 

“The double standard is clear. If someone went after Democratic senators’ phone records it would be breaking news all over the world … had subpoenas issued by some right wing prosecutor,” Graham said.  “The cavalier attitude that some of you have, ‘well, you know, nothing really bad here happened,’ I disagree, fundamentally disagree.” 

4. ‘Not Harmed’

Republican senators raised concerns about separation of powers. Democrats on the panel argued the nondisclosure orders were necessary because Trump may have attempted to intimidate witnesses. 

Mike Romano, a former federal prosecutor and one of the Democrats’ witnesses, argued the senators were not harmed by the data gathering. 

“This collection of toll records was not weaponization. It was not weaponization, period, much less the worst weaponization of the government in American history,” Romano said. “It was not a witch hunt. It was not a pretext to harm political opponents. If it was any of those things, the special counsel would have used this information against you somehow.”

“Your toll records were collected, and you are unhappy about that, and that’s understandable,” he added. “Nobody enjoys having the government collect their information. But apart from that unhappiness, you were not harmed.”

The post 4 Takeaways From Senate Probe of ‘Arctic Frost’ Data Collection appeared first on The Daily Signal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's alleged phone call to the Palm Beach police chief in 2006, wherein Trump allegedly told him, "Thank goodness you' re stopping [Epstein]," dismantles establishment narratives.

The post White House: Trump’s Alleged 2006 Call to Palm Beach Police Chief ‘Cracks’ Establishment’s Epstein Narrative on POTUS appeared first on Breitbart.

HEAVEN — Old habits from life on Earth seemed to be challenging to break, as reports from Heaven indicated that Saint Peter was seen trying to explain to John the Baptist that he didn't have to eat bugs anymore.