DHS Secretary Warns They’re Close to Not Being Able to Pay Employees

Mullin noted that between DHS’s 22 agencies, the department spends roughly 1.6 billion on wages every two weeks. “So, the money is going extremely fast, and once that happens, there is no emergency funds after that,” the DHS chief told Fox. “After we get through April I’ve got one payroll left and there is no more emergency funds, so the president can’t do another executive order for us to use money because there’s no more money there.”The only solution, according to Mullin, is for Congress to pass another funding bill. Republicans and Democrats have been in a stalemate for months, unable to reach a bipartisan consensus on how to fund DHS without tackling the myriad recent abuses by two of the department’s subagencies: Immigrants and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Shortly after federal agents killed Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, Democrats demanded 10 reforms to the two agencies as a prerequisite for ongoing funding negotiations. Those demands included line items that required agents to identify themselves, take off their masks, and obtain judicial warrants before forcing their way onto private property. Republicans refused.The conservative caucus, however, is attempting to put forward a new funding package that would address DHS’s financial straits without diverting additional funds toward ICE and BPD. Last year, the two agencies independently received a total of 170 billion in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill”—more than five times their 2024 allotment.