Something fascinating happened on Meet the Press this weekend. Rep. Ro Khanna — a progressive Democrat from Silicon Valley who has never met a government program he didn’t want to throw your money at — went on national television and announced that yes, he supports funding the Department of Homeland Security. The full department. The whole enchilada. Democrats are on board with border security now, folks.

Just kidding. He wants to fund everything at DHS *except* the agency that actually catches illegal aliens. Classic.

See, Khanna’s big concession in the wake of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting was to tell America that Democrats have been funding DHS all along. His exact words: “Absolutely, we’ve been funding DHS. The Democrats have been saying we want to fund DHS. We just don’t want to fund ICE agents for raids against American citizens and immigrants in ways that break the law.”

Read that again slowly. They’ll fund the building. They’ll fund the letterhead. They’ll fund the parking lot and the vending machines in the break room. But the agents who actually go out and enforce immigration law? Nah. That’s where Ro draws his little line in the sand.

This is like saying you support the fire department but you don’t want to fund the guys who drive the trucks. “We love firefighters! We just don’t think they should put out fires. That’s too aggressive.”

Now, here’s the context that makes this even more delicious. On Sunday night, a 31-year-old lunatic named Cole Tomas Allen from Torrance, California, breached security at the Washington Hilton during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and started shooting. A Secret Service agent took a round but was saved by body armor — thank God — and is expected to make a full recovery. The suspect had *multiple weapons* on him when he was taken down.

And how did this maniac waltz into one of the most high-profile events in Washington with a personal arsenal? Well, Khanna himself accidentally told us. He pointed out that metal detectors were “placed just before the ballroom as opposed to the hotel entrance.” So anyone could walk into the hotel lobby, roam the hallways, and get within spitting distance of the most powerful people in media and government before hitting a single security checkpoint.

(Remind us again which party has spent the last four years calling for *fewer* law enforcement officers and *less* security funding? We’ll wait.)

So what does Khanna do with this moment? Does he have a revelation? Does the progressive congressman from California look at a shooting at a major political event and think, “Maybe we should fund ALL of law enforcement”? Of course not. He funds the department but carves out the one agency that Democrats have been trying to abolish since 2018.

Khanna also called for a “bipartisan national commission on political violence.” Because that’s what Washington does best — form a commission. A shooting happens and within 24 hours they’re already talking about forming a committee to talk about forming a plan to maybe eventually write a report that nobody will read. Meanwhile, ICE agents are out there actually catching criminals and Khanna wants to defund them.

The real story here isn’t Khanna’s half-hearted concession. It’s the fissure.

Remember when “Abolish ICE” was a mainstream Democratic talking point? Remember when AOC and her squad were printing it on t-shirts? Remember when Democratic presidential candidates were tripping over each other to promise they’d dismantle immigration enforcement entirely?

That was before the WHCD shooting. That was before the border crisis became so catastrophic that even deep-blue cities started begging for help. That was before crime stats in sanctuary cities made the evening news every single night.

Now the progressive wing can’t even hold the line on defunding DHS. They’ve retreated to “fund DHS but not ICE” — which, for a party that wanted to abolish the whole department five minutes ago, is a significant cave. They’re negotiating against themselves and they don’t even realize it.

Because here’s what happens next. Khanna just admitted on national television that DHS needs funding. That’s the headline his colleagues are going to have to answer for. Every moderate Democrat in a swing district just got handed a lifeline — “Even Ro Khanna supports DHS funding!” — and every progressive is going to have to explain why they’re to the LEFT of the guy who represents San Jose.

The wall is cracking. Not the border wall (although that one’s getting built too). The Democratic wall of resistance to common-sense law enforcement. When a progressive from Silicon Valley goes on Meet the Press after a shooting and says “fund DHS,” the Overton window just moved about six feet to the right.

Will they fund ICE? Not yet. Khanna made sure to add all the usual caveats about “raids against American citizens” — a phrase designed to make ICE enforcement sound like some kind of military occupation instead of what it actually is: arresting people who are in the country illegally and often committing crimes while they’re here.

But we’ll take the partial win. Today it’s “fund DHS but not ICE.” Tomorrow it’ll be “fund ICE but only for violent criminals.” Next month it’ll be “okay, fund ICE, but we need oversight.” That’s how the retreat works. They give ground one inch at a time and pretend each new position was their idea all along.

The shooting at the WHCD was a horrific event. The Secret Service agent who took that bullet is a hero. And if there’s a silver lining, it’s watching Democrats scramble to suddenly remember that law enforcement exists for a reason.

Welcome to reality, Congressman Khanna. We saved you a seat. Now sit down and write the check for ICE while you’re at it.