WASHINGTON — Republican leaders eager to avert a partial government shutdown are getting heat from conservative colleagues who ask what the fuss is all about.

Numerous House Republicans say it’s preferable to let the Homeland Security Department go unfunded for a few days, at least, if that’s the cost of undoing a White House immigration policy they consider unlawful. These lawmakers say the impact on national security would be minimal, as would the political risks.

“Shutting down” the agency known as DHS “is a set of words that don’t really have the meaning that people attribute to it,” said Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama. “There was hardly any effect whatsoever on the Department of Homeland Security from the last shutdown, and I would anticipate a similar effect this time.”

Brooks was referring to the 2013 partial federal government shutdown that Americans blamed mostly on Republicans, and which many GOP leaders have vowed not to repeat.