Former acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf said on Newsmax Saturday that Democrats "picked the wrong fight" by pushing to limit Immigration and Customs Enforcement while other Department of Homeland Security missions could be disrupted.

Asked why Democrats would pursue what the interviewer described as a limited shutdown affecting a small slice of DHS, Wolf said, "I think they picked the wrong fight," arguing Democrats were "holding the rest of the department hostage" over ICE issues.

Speaking on "Saturday Agenda," Wolf said the practical effect would hit other DHS functions, saying, "whether it's aviation security, cybersecurity, our Coast Guard men and women, and a lot of other missions at DHS will be impacted, unfortunately," while emphasizing, "you know what won't be impacted? ICE."

As of Saturday, Congress allowed DHS funding to lapse amid a dispute over immigration enforcement policy, with Democrats pressing for changes to ICE and Republicans resisting.

Pressed on why Wolf believed ICE operations would continue, he pointed to prior funding and said, "ICE, the very thing that they're upset about because of that funding last year and the one big beautiful bill," adding, "those operations will continue."

Asked about how ICE operates on the ground, Wolf said, "in 98% of the jurisdictions around the country, ICE does their job with no fanfare, no media coverage," and said, "They do it inside of jails," which he said shows that "if they have local police support, they do their job very effectively."

Wolf then tied conflict points to local liberal policies, saying, "It's only in sanctuary cities where you see some of this chaos," and arguing, "what the Democrats have done here is they've thrown up sanctuary city policies," adding, "when chaos erupts, they use this as another way to crack down on ICE even more."

Asked about Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.'s, description of Democrats seeking to legislate limits on ICE, Wolf agreed and said, "Well, 100%," then argued Democrats were trying to lock policy in place because "their list of ten demands or limitations, I would say on ICE, a handful of those were implemented under President Obama."

Then, Wolf said, those policies "were reversed under President Trump," then "implemented again under President [Joe] Biden," and "reversed by President Trump in his second term," adding, "I think the Democrats are saying we don't like that, so if we can just get them enshrined into law, a future Republican president can't change them."

Wolf said the stakes were operational, calling the demands "extremely bad," and adding, "I would say seven or eight out of those ten should be nonstarters for Republicans," because, he said, "if they pass, they will have a detrimental effect on ICE and their ability to carry out their mission."

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