Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin tore into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday, accusing the New York Democrat of disrespecting federal law enforcement officers while Senate Republicans moved to end a DHS shutdown now approaching 70 days.

The clash erupted after Fox News anchor Bill Melugin showed Mullin a clip of Schumer suggesting that "nobody" in the United States "respects" Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol. Mullin did not hold back.

As The Hill reported, Mullin told Melugin that Schumer's remarks made his "ears red", and then escalated sharply. The DHS chief said it "takes a lot to get me upset," before delivering a blunt assessment of the Senate minority leader:

"But Chuck Schumer, no one respects you. The definition of a lying, s***bag politician, that is you. You would be the definition if you Googled you right now."

Mullin went further, accusing Schumer of having had the chance to address immigration enforcement concerns during the Biden administration but choosing not to act.

"You didn't because you're for open borders and you're for the criminals running amok in our cities."

Schumer's Senate floor remarks drew the fire

The full context of Schumer's comments came from the Senate floor, where the minority leader was discussing DHS funding. Breitbart reported that Schumer said lawmakers would be "adding $140 billion to an agency that nobody, 2 groups, Border Patrol and ICE, that nobody respects in this country."

That is a remarkable claim from the leader of the Senate Democratic caucus. ICE and Border Patrol agents have spent months carrying out federal immigration enforcement under dangerous conditions, many of them without pay, thanks to the very shutdown Schumer's party engineered.

Democrats blocked funding for DHS in mid-February. The department has now been shut down for almost 70 days. Most DHS employees have continued working without paychecks. Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration employees have called out of work or quit altogether, disrupting airport operations across the country.

And Schumer's response to the agents still showing up? Tell the country that nobody respects them.

Mullin warns the money is about to run out

The DHS secretary's anger was not just rhetorical. On Tuesday, Mullin warned that the department will be unable to pay employee salaries starting in early May. He laid out the math in stark terms:

"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."

Mullin said the emergency funds are running out fast, and once they are gone, there is no backup. That means the men and women enforcing immigration law, screening passengers at airports, and protecting the homeland face the real prospect of working indefinitely without compensation, or walking away entirely.

This is the direct, foreseeable consequence of the Democratic strategy. Schumer previously tried to fund TSA while stripping ICE of resources, a maneuver Senate Republicans blocked. The pattern is clear: Democrats want to pick and choose which parts of homeland security deserve support, and immigration enforcement consistently ends up on the chopping block.

Senate Republicans move to break the impasse

Early Thursday morning, Senate Republicans adopted a budget resolution that could lead to DHS being funded again through the rest of President Trump's term. They plan to advance a spending package next month at a cost of between $70 billion and $80 billion.

Lawmakers said the agency requires widespread reforms after carrying out the president's deportation agenda. The budget resolution represents the GOP's effort to restore full funding and end the shutdown that has left tens of thousands of federal workers in limbo.

Whether Democrats will cooperate or continue to obstruct remains an open question. Schumer's floor comments suggest the minority leader has no interest in making this easy. His caucus has treated the DHS shutdown not as a crisis to resolve but as leverage to extract concessions on immigration enforcement, the very enforcement his voters in border-adjacent communities and crime-affected cities need most.

Trump demands an apology

President Trump weighed in Thursday on Truth Social, responding directly to Schumer's claim that nobody respects ICE and Border Patrol. Trump called it one of the worst statements he has heard from an elected official:

"That is one of the most egregious, incorrect, unpatriotic, and dangerous statements I have EVER heard from a 'professional' politician."

Trump demanded that Schumer apologize immediately, writing: "HE MUST IMMEDIATELY APOLOGIZE TO THESE GREAT PATRIOTS, AND I MEAN NOW!"

Don't hold your breath. Schumer has spent months making demands about ICE reform while doing nothing to fund the officers who carry out the law. His rhetoric has escalated steadily, from policy objections to what now amounts to open contempt for the agents themselves.

The real cost of the shutdown

Mullin also pointed to the personal danger that immigration enforcement officers face. He noted that Schumer benefits from a security detail while dismissing the very officers who protect ordinary Americans.

"And for you to say that is so disrespectful to the law enforcement that is out there protecting you because he has a detail with him. How about he walks around these city streets without a detail? I wonder how safe he would feel."

The risks are not theoretical. In January, federal immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in separate incidents during immigration operations in Minneapolis. Whatever one's view of those events, they underscore the volatile, high-stakes conditions under which these agents operate, conditions made worse when they work without pay and without the full backing of a funded department.

Schumer's willingness to force shutdowns is not new. What is new is the brazenness of telling the country that the people enforcing its borders deserve no respect. That is not a policy argument. It is a message, aimed at demoralizing the very workforce Democrats have already refused to pay.

Mullin's language was rough. But the substance of his complaint is hard to argue with. You cannot defund an agency, leave its employees working for free, and then go to the Senate floor and announce that nobody respects them. That is not leadership. That is sabotage dressed up as principle.

The agents of ICE and Border Patrol did not create this shutdown. Chuck Schumer did. And the people who show up every day without a paycheck deserve a senator who can tell the difference between a political talking point and the men and women standing behind it.