The ongoing standoff over Homeland Security funding is raising concerns about the potential impact on Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the agency that has helped bring cases against high-profile figures, including Sean "Diddy" Combs and Sinaloa cartel co-founder Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán.
HSI is one of several agencies under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) threatened by the ongoing government shutdown.
That branch of DHS acts as the investigative arm for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) - the agency that Democrats want to rein in and reform - and handles investigations into human and sex trafficking, drug trafficking, immigration-related crimes, child exploitation and several other areas.
DHS SHUTDOWN DRAGS INTO WEEK TWO AS IRAN THREAT, SOTU CLASH COMPLICATE HILL TALKS
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who was anointed the lead negotiator for Senate Republicans in the ongoing DHS funding back-and-forth, told Fox News Digital the agency's work is "critically important."
"When you think about interior enforcement, I mean, HSI is a critical component of that," Britt said. "You look at what they've done, you look at the bad actors they've been able to hunt down and hold accountable for human trafficking, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, child pornography, trafficking, all kinds of things."
Other big names whom HSI has played a role in investigating or indicting include R. Kelly, Josh Duggar, Sinaloa cartel co-founder Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Jared Fogle.
SCHUMER, DEMS AGAIN BLOCK DHS FUNDING, FORCE STATE OF THE UNION SHOWDOWN
While ICE and other immigration enforcement operations like HSI were funded in part through Republicans' "big, beautiful bill," the lapse in ongoing appropriations could threaten supplies in the field and travel, hampering investigations already underway.
A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that HSI was continuing to function during the shutdown, with arrests and investigations still happening. But as the current 14-day shutdown continues, delays in supply procurement and travel for "critical personnel to move around the country" could be impacted.
"Our national security and ability to get criminals, including pedophiles and other public safety threats, off the streets could be impacted the longer this Democratic shutdown continues," they said.
DEMOCRATS DEMANDING ICE REFORMS LOSE AIRPORT ESCORTS IN SHUTDOWN THEY TRIGGERED
Senate Democrats and the White House have so far tried and failed to reach a deal to fund DHS after trading offers and counteroffers in a slow back-and-forth over the last two weeks.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., charged that ICE had been "unleashed without guardrails" throughout the country.
"This is not border security, this is not law and order, this is chaos - created at the top and felt in so many of our neighborhoods," Schumer said.
And with lawmakers gone from Washington, D.C., for the weekend, the shutdown is guaranteed to stretch into its third week. Senate Democrats want stringent reforms to ICE, including requiring agents to obtain judicial warrants, unmask and provide thorough identification - all demands that are red lines for the Republicans and the White House, who fear that doing so would increase the chances of ICE agents being doxxed.
While Republicans and the administration raised concerns about HSI and other ICE functions, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., countered that from his understanding, "most everybody at HSI is gone."
"They've all been deployed to the interior," he told Fox News Digital. "Not many, if not most, redeployed to interior enforcement. So the administration has gutted HSI."
"My impression is that HSI has been one of the agencies that has been essentially turned into ICE Junior," Murphy said.
