The Senate unanimously approved a bipartisan funding bill that partially reopened the Department of Homeland Security, excluding the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Following the Senate’s bill, the House of Representatives passed a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, which included funding for both ICE and CBP.
The House bill passed in a 213-203 vote, with Speaker of the House Mike Johnson calling the Senate backed bill “a joke.”
“Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” Johnson stated.
Republicans and Democrats have been in conflict over DHS funding of ICE after the killings of two U.S. citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by ICE officers in Minnesota. ICE has also shot 14 people since September 2025. Democrats have refused to fund the DHS unless additional restrictions are placed on ICE agents, including bans on wearing masks, racial profiling and requiring judicial warrants for agents before they enter private property.
President Donald Trump rejected the Senate’s funding bill, stating in a phone interview with Fox News, “In [my] opinion, you can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund ICE. You can’t have a bill that’s not going to fund any form of law enforcement. This whole thing is about the Democrats wanting to have open borders. No ICE, no Border Patrol.”
The partial government shutdown has affected the DHS alone and has broken the record for the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history. The government has been partially shut down for 46 days.
The Transportation Security Administration has been involved with the DHS funding debate. Airports have been facing severe delays, as TSA officers have gone without pay for over a month. The DHS shutdown and lack of pay have had record-breaking consequences. According to the DHS, at least 500 TSA officers quit over the course of the shutdown, and the call-out rate reached a high of 12.35% on March 27, which is over 3,560 employees.
Trump signed an executive order on March 26 directing Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin to compensate TSA agents during the partial shutdown. The payments began being distributed on March 30.
“If Democrats in the Congress will not act to honor the service of our TSA officers, who are now performing their critical public safety responsibilities without knowing whether they will be able to buy food for their families or pay their rent, then my Administration will take action,” Trump wrote in the executive order.
Both the House and Senate are currently in recess from March 30 to April 10, meaning no new legislation or funding will be passed until the chambers reconvene.
