Tipsheet

Here's the Democrats' New Shutdown Strategy: 'We're Making People Hurt'

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  March 18, 2026 11:30 AM

We suppose this is the most honesty and candor we've ever seen from the Democratic Party. That self-described party of the working class has decided to no longer represent working class Americans — or any Americans — and have decided to go all-in on defending and supporting illegal aliens (including violent criminal illegal aliens) ahead of the midterms.

Right now, the government is in a partial shutdown and has been for a month. That means TSA employees are not getting paid and security lines at airports are spilling out into the parking lots as travelers wait hours to get through checkpoints.

For Democrats, that pain is the point, and they're hoping by inflicting more of it on the American people, they'll get their way and Republicans will cave on defunding DHS and abolishing ICE.

"We're making people hurt" is a hell of a campaign ad for Republicans, though. 

Here's more:

House Democrats are launching a Hail Mary push to effectively end the Department of Homeland Security's now month-long shutdown by funding all of its sub-agencies except ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

Why it matters: Democrats are feeling the heat as federal workers miss paychecks and DHS warns of airport closures. They hope their planned discharge petition will, at the very least, deflect blame onto Republicans.

  • Many lawmakers also question whether keeping the agency shut down is meaningfully incentivizing the White House to negotiate in good faith on immigration enforcement reforms.
  • "It's not forcing any change," said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). "In the meantime, we're making people hurt. The long lines, that can't make us more popular."
  • "We're on the right side on ICE, but not on the rest."

They are not on the right side of ICE, either. By abolishing ICE and Border Protection, Democrats are allowing unfettered illegal immigration into our country and halting the deportations that Americans elected President Trump to carry out.

It's also a scam: ICE is fully funded through 2029, thanks to legislation passed in the summer of 2025. So even if Democrats don't fund ICE in this bill, the agency is still funded for three more years.

That lasted about six seconds.

That's a very bold strategy. It will not work well for them.

Every single Democratic Party policy is about inflicting pain on people so Democrats can increase their power.

Of course they will be. Remember, Democrats said they planned to use the last shutdown for political leverage, including leveraging the suffering of Americans, and this time, Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz said Democrats feel "serene" about this shutdown.

For Democrats, it's always the point.

This is accurate. There's a portion of the Democratic Party base, and some Never-Trumpers, who want to see conservatives and Republicans suffer for supporting President Trump.

Their voters think this is resistance.

Hang it in the Louvre.

It's very sick, but refreshingly revealing.

Whoever told the Democrats that this was a winning strategy doesn't understand the American people. With the exception of the Leftist loon fringe, most of us do not approve of being used as political pawns, and we do not like it when the Democrats inflict pain on us for their gain. 

More than that, after years of seeing illegal immigrants kill our citizens, increase crime in our cities, and flout American laws, we're not going to look kindly on returning to the policies of the Biden years.

This will backfire on Democrats.