WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Funding for the Department of Homeland Security was expected to lapse at midnight Feb. 13 as lawmakers left Washington amid a stalemate over federal immigration enforcement actions.
The same week, Attorney General Pam Bondi sparred with lawmakers over the Jeffrey Epstein case, and legislation was introduced in the House that seeks to document religious persecution and violence in Nigeria.
— DHS funding expected to lapse
In January, lawmakers ended a brief, partial government shutdown, agreeing to pass most outstanding appropriations bills but only a two-week extension for DHS to allow negotiations for new, stronger constraints on federal immigration officers after federal agents killed two American citizens in Minnesota in separate incidents.
But lawmakers left Washington for a scheduled recess without a resolution, meaning that funding for the agency is expected to lapse.
Previously, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, issued a list of 10 items they want to include among new restrictions, such as prohibiting immigration enforcement agents from wearing masks to obscure their identity and requiring them to wear body cameras, as well as a prohibition on “funds from being used to conduct enforcement near sensitive locations, including medical facilities, schools, child-care facilities, churches, polling places, courts, etc.”
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., argued in Feb. 12 comments on the Senate floor that “unfortunately, once they got their two-week agreement, Democrats showed little urgency when it came to negotiations,” and that “the ball is in Democrats’ court.”
Schumer argued in his own Feb. 12 comments on the Senate floor that “unless there are really strong, meaningful reforms to rein in ICE and stop the violence, there will not be Democratic votes to fund ICE and extend the awful status quo that now exists.”
In addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, entities that fall under DHS include the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration.
— Bondi spars with Congress over Epstein files
Bondi sparred with members of Congress about the Epstein case during a hearing by the House Judiciary Committee Feb. 11.
The Department of Justice recently published millions of additional pages in accordance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of documents surrounding the Epstein sex-trafficking case, a multimillionaire who was found dead in prison of an apparent hanging in 2019.
But the Justice Department has faced significant scrutiny in the case and the publication of the files, such as erroneously releasing survivors’ names and contact information that were left unredacted.
Bondi had several tense exchanges with Democratic lawmakers, but also notably with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a co-sponsor of the Epstein files bill.
“The Dow is over 50,000 right now,” Bondi said at one point, referring to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, adding, “That’s what we should be talking about.”
Her comments were met with significant backlash among even conservative media figures who generally support Trump.
“When the Attorney General of the United States is asked why she has prosecuted no one related to Jeffrey Epstein and this is her answer, she should be fired or resign,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson wrote on X, in reference to Bondi’s comments about the stock market.
Amid the Epstein controversy, Catholic advocates have called on Congress to strengthen efforts to prevent sex trafficking.
— Commissioner removed from Religious Liberty Commission after tense antisemitism hearing
Carrie Prejean Boller has been removed from the Religious Liberty Commission, but the Catholic member of the commission is disputing the authority of its chair, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to remove her.
Patrick’s announcement Feb. 11 of Prejean Boller’s removal came shortly after the commission held a Feb. 9 hearing which aimed to examine a rise in antisemitism where Prejean Boller initiated some tense exchanges with Jewish American witnesses, such as when she asked, “Catholics do not embrace Zionism, just so you know. So are all Catholics antisemites?” But she did not define what she meant by “Zionism,” a term that has a spectrum of definitions.
Father Thomas Ferguson, pastor of Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Alexandria, Virginia, and a member of the commission’s Advisory Board of Religious Leaders, was one of the witnesses at the hearing, who spoke about the Catholic Church’s teaching in “Nostra Aetate” which states that Jesus Christ’s voluntary submission to his passion and death for the redemption of humankind “cannot be charged against all the Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor against the Jews of today.”
The text also declared that “the Jews should not be presented as rejected or accursed by God, as if this followed from the Holy Scriptures.”
Prejean Boller later claimed on social media that Patrick lacked the authority to remove her from the commission.
“You are speaking without authority, and it is clear your actions reflect a Zionist political agenda, not the President’s, not the U.S. Constitution’s, and not the purpose of this Commission,” she claimed.
The drama came the same day a federal lawsuit was filed by a multifaith coalition, including Muslim, Hindu and Sikh organizations challenging the legality of the commission itself. It argued that while the commission was “ostensibly designed to defend ‘religious liberty for all Americans’ and celebrate ‘religious pluralism’ it actually represents only a single ‘Judeo-Christian’ viewpoint.”
— Proposed legislation seeks to document religious persecution and violence in Nigeria
Legislation introduced in the House by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chair of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, and Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., would require the U.S. secretary of state to make and deliver to Congress a comprehensive report on U.S. efforts to address religious persecution and violence in Nigeria, Smith’s office said.
The bill comes after the Trump administration redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” a State Department designation for nations or entities that carry out systemic religious freedom violations.
Violence against Christians in that country has escalated in recent years from Islamic extremist groups such as Boko Haram; however, Muslim communities have also been gravely impacted by the violence. Disputes between farmers and herders have also led to violence and displacement.
The legislation would require the report to include an assessment of Nigeria’s compliance with the International Religious Freedom Act, as well as an assessment of “instances of non-Muslims, Muslims, and dissenters being subjected to Sharia law or blasphemy laws,” Smith’s office said.
“The Nigerian government’s blatant denial of the religious persecution occurring within its borders has only enabled the religious-based violence in the country to fester, with Christian deaths and church attacks reaching unprecedented numbers,” Smith said in a statement.
“Now that President Trump has rightly redesignated Nigeria a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC),” he said, “the United States has a responsibility to do its due diligence in ensuring that the Nigerian government is taking the proper steps to address and punish the systemic violence against Christians and non-radical Muslims by Islamist extremists, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists.”
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., also praised the proposed legislation.
“Defending religious liberty in Nigeria and worldwide is both a moral duty and a vital American interest. Moreover, this bill, as well as President Trump’s ongoing efforts, does just that,” Cole said in a statement. “The Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026 makes it clear: religious persecution will not be tolerated.”
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
