Trump signs DHS budget as GOP moves to fund immigration agencies without Democratic votes
President Donald Trump signed a bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, excluding its immigration enforcement operations, on Thursday. The bill signing ends a record-breaking agency shutdown.
Members of the House of Representatives approved the legislation by voice vote earlier in the day.
“After 76 days, the longest government shutdown in history is over,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on X. “To our great, patriotic employees who have continued to protect the homeland every single day without a guaranteed paycheck — thank you.”
Lawmakers still have not come to a consensus on the policy disagreements that caused the impasse.
While HR 7147 appropriates money for agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Secret Service, it does not do the same for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection.
Democrats refused to fund either agency unless there were stricter guidelines for the agencies, especially after federal immigration officers shot and killed multiple people during operations.
However, DHS’s immigration functions received a windfall from an earlier spending bill, and GOP lawmakers are now pushing for an additional $70 billion that would fund ICE and CBP through the end of Trump’s second term.
The Senate passed the DHS funding bill on April 1, but House GOP leaders didn’t take it up until Thursday, citing the lack of ICE and Border Patrol funding.
However, the White House sounded the alarm earlier this week, saying that DHS would run out of funds to pay TSA employees, as well as others, if a bill didn’t pass.
“If funding is exhausted, the administration will be unable to pay all DHS personnel beginning in May, which will once again unleash havoc on air travel, leave critical law enforcement officers — including our brave Secret Service agents — and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and jeopardize national security,” an Office of Management and Budget memo obtained by The Hill said.
On the House floor Thursday, Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., said, “it has come to this. ”
“We need, no, we must, pay our DHS workers,” he said, according to The New York Times.
Budget reconciliation bill
Now, Republicans are trying to fund ICE and the Border Patrol through budget reconciliation — a path that avoids the need for Democratic votes in the Senate.
The House voted late Wednesday to adopt a budget framework for this bill, which would free up about $70 billion through 2028.
Trump previously said on social media that he wants the budget reconciliation bill on his desk by June 1.
Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the House Budget Committee chair, applauded his party for acting to “end this reckless shutdown and restore critical operations to DHS, while using reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP for the next three years.”
“This will prevent the Democrats from shutting down the government and defunding ICE in the future and provide our agents the resources they need to secure the border, enforce the law, and protect our communities,” he said.
Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., the ranking minority member on the budget panel, said in a statement that the reconciliation bill gives ICE and CBP billions “without any reforms or accountability.”
“Republicans keep telling working families we cannot afford health care or relief from the cost-of-living crisis they continue to make worse, but they never seem to have a problem writing massive checks for these out-of-control agencies,” Boyle said.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters Thursday afternoon that Democrats “aren’t looking for comprehensive immigration reform.”
“We wanted three or four targeted changes that would curb the illegality” of the Trump administration’s actions, he said, according to Politico.
Workers’ union reaction
American Federation of Government Employees president Everett Kelley said in a news release that thousands of federal workers continued to show up without a guaranteed paycheck throughout the DHS shutdown.
“While AFGE is pleased that Congress finally stepped up to do their jobs and fund DHS, it is unacceptable that it took them this long to do so,” Kelley said. “Too many times we have seen lawmakers use patriotic federal employees’ livelihoods as leverage for political gains. Federal employees are not political pawns. They are not leverage. They are Americans — and they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
