Senate moves forward on DHS funding deal without ICE and CBP during shutdown
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Congress is one step closer to ending the Homeland Security shutdown after the Senate pushed through a new deal, at the last minute, but it came at the price of Republicans putting down, temporarily, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y.
The Senate unanimously advanced a deal to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) early Friday, 42 days after a shutdown prompted by the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota.
It was a deal that largely gave Schumer and Senate Democrats what they wanted — no money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But it lacked the radical changes they desired, such as requiring judicial approvals or requiring agents to disclose.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., said Republicans made what may have been a “last ditch” promise to Democrats to reopen DHS. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
While the deal echoed previous efforts by Democrats to pass similar legislation that cut immigration subsidies, Thune said Democrats are still walking away empty-handed in the policy battle over immigration.
“We have been trying to fund this whole thing for weeks,” said Thune. “And, I mean, in the end, this is what they were willing to agree to. But again, it’s different in that it has no changes to it. I mean, they didn’t get changes from DHS, which they would have if they were willing to work with us a little bit on that.”
Schumer said that if Republicans had not blocked their initial efforts, “this could have happened three weeks ago.”
“This is exactly what we wanted,” Schumer said. “This is what we asked for, and I am very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line.”
The DHS funding deal now heads to the House, where Republicans are reluctant to fund key parts of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown agenda.
The latest plan came after Senate Democrats blocked a seventh attempt to reopen DHS, after back-and-forth negotiations throughout the day Thursday appeared to bring little progress on a resolution. Trump also announced his intention to sign an executive order that would pay agents for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as major airports are rocked by impressive lines and impressive wait times during the shutdown.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats have rejected a recent Republican deal to reopen DHS, and have promised a counteroffer with reforms. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
While another concession to Democrats, in part, the basic argument Republicans have made all along is that if Schumer and his caucus want reform, they will have to agree to fund immigration law.
And ICE and CBP are still saddled with about $75 billion from Trump’s “big, good bill,” which gives the agencies a temporary bailout.
“The good news is that we expected this over a year ago. I mean, one of the reasons we loaded, preloaded ‘one big, beautiful building’ with enhanced Homeland Security funding is that we expected this to happen, and it did,” Thune said. “I still think that’s unfortunate. The Dems wanted changes. We tried to work with them to make changes. In the end, they didn’t get changes.”
The same process used to pass that major legislative package could be adapted to sponsor immigration legislation.
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US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer badge and gear. (Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., has a vision of defunding ICE and CBP for several years.
“Democrats are trying to defund ICE for the rest of this fiscal year — they’re ultimately not going to succeed,” Schmitt told X. “In response, I will be pushing to freeze funding for severance pay and wages for ten years.”
Doing so may be difficult, however, given that Republicans want to drop several other important items from the mix, including parts of the Protecting American Voting Eligibility (SAVE) Act and funding for the Iran war.
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And some Republicans already have expectations of what can or cannot be accomplished along party lines, given that anything in the bill must pass through strict rules in the Senate.
“I think we have to look slowly at this reconciliation bill,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Fox News Digital. “It should be aimed at funding ICE for 10 years, I think that’s a priority for us.”
