The third government shutdown in under half a year has officially begun just after midnight on Saturday after Democrats and Republicans spent recent weeks battling over President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

Just one area of government has been left without federal funding as of midnight — the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Congress has completed roughly 97% of its yearly government spending responsibilities, but a deal on DHS has proved elusive after Democrats walked away from an initial bipartisan plan released last month.

Now DHS, the third-largest Cabinet agency with nearly 272,000 employees, will see key areas of operation limited or paused altogether. Some 90% of DHS workers will continue on the job during the funding lapse, many without pay, according to the department’s Sept. 2025 government shutdown plan.

Established in 2003 after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, DHS has jurisdiction over a wide array of agencies and offices. That includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Secret Service, among others.

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Among those working without pay will be some 64,000 TSA agents and 56,000 active-duty, reserve, and civilian Coast Guard personnel. Those people and others are expected to receive back pay when the shutdown is over.

But as of Friday afternoon, it does not appear the two parties are any closer to an agreement despite the Trump White House sending a potential compromise offer on Wednesday night.

"It’s our expectation that we will respond to the unserious offer that Republicans have made that clearly omits things that need to happen," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said during a press conference. 

"There are a variety of different areas where clearly the administration has fallen short of doing things that make things better for the American people. Until that happens, unfortunately, it appears that Donald Trump and the Republicans have decided to shut down other parts of the Department of Homeland Security."

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Democrats blew up bipartisan negotiations over DHS funding last month after federal law enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during anti-ICE demonstrations there.

They are now demanding significant reforms to rein in ICE and CBP, many of which Republicans in Congress have long panned as non-starters, including banning ICE agents from wearing masks and requiring them to obtain judicial warrants before pursuing suspected illegal immigrants.

What happens next will be up to Senate Democrats and the White House, who are expected to continue negotiating through the weekend and into next week if need be.

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Both sides have traded proposals and legislative text on a compromise DHS funding bill, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus remained steadfast in their position that the GOP’s offer didn’t go far enough.

Meanwhile, the majority of House and Senate lawmakers left Washington on Thursday and are not currently expected to return until Feb. 23.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that he would give lawmakers 24 hours' notice to return to Washington, D.C., should there be a breakthrough, and remained optimistic that there was a path forward despite Democrats’ blockade. 

"Every iteration of this gets a step closer, because I think the White House is giving more and more ground on some of these key issues," Thune said. "But so far, they're not getting any kind of response to Democrats, even allowing us to continue this, allowing [the] government to stay open."

But Democrats have reiterated several times that they believe their demands are simple. 

"Again, the only — the fundamental ask is that ICE abide by the same principles and policies of every other police force in the country, and if we can get there, then we can resolve the problem," Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said.

Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., gave House lawmakers his blessing to leave Washington with a 48 hours’ notice to return pending Senate action, two sources told Fox News Digital.

The U.S. military used Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence tool Claude during the operation that captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, according to a report.

Last month, U.S. special operations forces captured Maduro and his wife, who were brought to the U.S. to face sweeping narcotics charges.

Claude was deployed through Anthropic’s partnership with data company Palantir Technologies, whose tools are widely used by the Defense Department and federal law enforcement, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the matter.

"We cannot comment on whether Claude, or any other AI model, was used for any specific operation, classified or otherwise," an Anthropic spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "Any use of Claude — whether in the private sector or across government — is required to comply with our Usage Policies, which govern how Claude can be deployed. We work closely with our partners to ensure compliance."

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Anthropic’s usage guidelines prohibit Claude from being used for violence, weapons development, or surveillance.

A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that Anthropic has visibility into classified and unclassified usage and has confidence that all usage has been in line with Anthropic’s usage policy, as well as its partners’ own compliance policies.

Reached by Fox News Digital, the Department of War declined to comment.

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Anthropic was the first AI model developer to be used in classified operations by the Department of War, according to the Journal.

Anthropic has raised concerns about how Claude can be used by the Pentagon, prompting officials within the Trump administration to consider canceling its contract worth up to $200 million, which was awarded last summer, the paper reported.

The AI tools can be used for everything from summarizing documents to controlling autonomous drones, the outlet noted.

The Trump administration has prioritized AI development, and in December War Secretary Pete Hegseth said "the future of American warfare is here, and it's spelled AI."

"As technologies advance, so do our adversaries," he said. "But here at the War Department, we are not sitting idly by."