A late-night Senate deal aimed at ending the 41-day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security is now stalled in the House, throwing Washington back into uncertainty and deepening the chaos on Capitol Hill. But Washington Examiner DHS reporter Anna Giaritelli told The Ryan Gorman Show the breakthrough wasn’t just about policy, it was about optics, leadership, and timing.
Giaritelli pointed to a combination of internal shakeups and public-facing developments that “really pushed the needle.” Chief among them: the departure of Kristi Noem from DHS leadership and the sudden arrival of Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin. “Things are shifting quickly,” she said, suggesting the leadership transition helped break a logjam that had stalled operations and delayed more than a thousand internal contracts.
But it wasn’t just Washington politics that changed the equation. The highly visible deployment of ICE agents at major airports across the country played a surprisingly pivotal role. Critics initially feared chaos, but the reality, Giaritelli noted, looked very different. “We saw the opposite effect,” she said, describing agents interacting calmly with travelers, handing out water, and even helping manage long TSA lines.
That shift in tone may have helped soften public perception—and political resistance. “No one has been harmed,” Giaritelli emphasized, adding that ICE’s presence may have even improved efficiency and security at crowded, pre-screening checkpoints. In some cases, she suggested, the optics may have “backfired for Democrats,” as the feared crackdown never materialized.
Still, she questioned whether ICE was the right agency for the job in the first place. With illegal border crossings at historic lows, Giaritelli argued Border Patrol agents—already assisting TSA in some regions—would have been a more logical and experienced choice for airport deployments.
Now, with funding still in limbo and Mullin stepping into a sprawling department with 23 agencies under its umbrella, the real test begins. He inherits not only the operational backlog left behind, but also a department in need of recalibration after months of centralized decision-making under Noem.
Listen to the full episode for more on the internal drama, including what to look for as Mullin takes over.