The Senate voted early Thursday to advance a Homeland Security budget plan focused on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, setting up the next steps toward restarting parts of a department shutdown that began in mid-February. With the Senate approval in hand, House consideration is now the immediate hurdle, and Republicans are framing the move as a way to secure funding for the two immigration enforcement agencies while negotiations continue over policy conditions.
The vote came after the Senate spent hours on amendments through the night into early Thursday morning, with Democrats proposing changes aimed at reducing health care costs and other expenses. After that series of votes concluded, the chamber adopted the final resolution 50-48 just past 3:30 a.m., sending the measure to the House.
Republican leaders said the path forward relies on budget reconciliation, a process that allows the Senate to clear the measure with a simple majority and avoids the usual 60-vote threshold on most bills when the chamber has 53 seats. Thune said the Senate has a multistep process ahead, but he argued that Republicans would help ensure the country’s borders are secure and prevent Democrats from defunding the two agencies.
Schumer criticized the effort as misplaced, saying Republicans should be working with Democrats on lowering out-of-pocket costs rather than directing funds to ICE and Border Patrol. In the Senate chamber, the two leaders’ contrasting arguments reflected a broader dispute over both funding priorities and how much, if any, policy restraint Democrats want attached to immigration enforcement.
The shutdown context dates to Democrats’ demand for policy changes following fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents. The proposal now advanced separates ICE and Border Patrol from the rest of the Homeland Security Department, which has been shut down since mid-February as negotiations produced no agreement on changes to immigration enforcement tactics.
Before Thursday’s vote, the Senate had already approved legislation on a bipartisan basis to reopen the rest of the department, according to the AP description of the sequence. But House Republicans said they would not take up that bill until the Senate showed progress toward funding ICE and Border Patrol as well, leaving the process stalled until the Senate moved Thursday.
Under the resolution, Republicans are seeking $70 billion to fund the two agencies for three years, through the rest of Trump’s term. Party leaders also signaled they want the budget bill to stay narrowly focused, but the effort could still face internal pressure from lawmakers who want additional items added to the package, an issue raised when Sen. John Kennedy briefly held up the vote series late Wednesday.
Kennedy said the effort was the “last train leaving the station” and predicted major additional bills could not pass before November’s midterm elections. He later withdrew his objections and allowed the voting to proceed, with Republicans continuing to move toward House action once the Senate completes the remaining procedural steps that include House approval of the framework and the Senate parliamentarian’s sign-off on the budget process.
Democrats argued that the funding should come with restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants. The dispute centers on how immigration enforcement is conducted after the January shootings in Minneapolis involving Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which Democrats said prompted a need for reforms at ICE and Border Patrol.
As the measure moves to the House, Republicans said they expected it to serve as a signal that they would follow through, but Thune warned that other parts of Homeland Security could run out of money before lawmakers can complete the budget process and fund the two agencies. House Speaker Mike Johnson has discussed a two-track approach to sequencing the broader Homeland Security funding and the narrower ICE and Border Patrol bill, but he had not yet set a timeline for when the House would take up the Senate legislation.