Day 42 of the second Schumer government shutdown is showing signs of ending. Early Friday, the Senate voted to advance the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill — with caveats.
Congress is one step closer to ending the Homeland Security shutdown after the Senate advanced a new, last-minute deal, but it came at the price of Republicans ceding ground, temporarily, to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The Senate unanimously advanced a deal to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the wee hours of Friday morning, 42 days into the shutdown that was spurred by the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minnesota.
It was an agreement that largely gave Schumer and Senate Democrats what they wanted — no funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But it lacked the stringent reforms they desired, like requiring judicial warrants or requiring agents to unmask.
U.S. Senate unanimously votes to reopen DHS after 40-day shutdown, without funding for immigration enforcement or deportations. pic.twitter.com/4shFJXyCnT
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) March 27, 2026
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) does not view this as a Republican cave because Democrats still did not receive the "ICE reforms" they demanded.
While the deal mirrors previous attempts by Democrats to pass similar legislation that carved out immigration funding, Thune argued that Democrats are still walking away empty-handed in the policy fight over immigration enforcement.
"We've been trying for weeks to fund the whole thing," Thune said. "And, I mean, in the end, this is what they were willing to agree to. But again, it's different that it has zero reforms in it. I mean, they got no reforms on DHS, which they could have had if they had been willing to work with us a little bit on that."
According to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson (LA-04), the budget reconciliation process could be used to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) once the DHS funding bill returns to the House.
"We'll have to see," he told reporters Thursday afternoon.
Asked whether the proposal would be able to clear the House if it passes the Senate, Johnson said, "it's a really good question."
"If they break away that subset, I suppose we have to fund it through reconciliation and find some other means," he said. "We have never been in favor of breaking the bill up."
In an attempt to save face, Senate Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY) claimed his caucus had the upper hand and blamed Republicans.
"This is exactly what we wanted," Schumer said. "This is what we asked for, and I'm very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line." [...]
Schumer said that if Republicans hadn't blocked their initial attempts, "this could have been done three weeks ago."
Because Democrats refused to fund DHS unless they received these so-called ICE reforms, employees within several agencies of DHS, including the Transportation and Safety Administration (TSA), went without pay. This has caused a record number of TSA agents to quit or call out sick, causing chaos in the nation's airports, especially in major cities. This very visible and visceral disruption has directly affected all Americans.
On Monday, DHS deployed ICE agents to handle the monitoring and security aspect of air travel to relieve the burden on TSA and free the agents up to safely man the scanners and monitor baggage.
Democrats thought this deployment of ICE agents to airports would be the perfect opportunity to twist the knife on their "ICE Gestapo" narrative. However, it has had the opposite effect, as Americans have seen the agents unmasked, up close and personal, presenting them in a different light.
Another blow to the Democrat plot: On Thursday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA employees.
With the Democrats' continued refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until their woke Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) demands are met, President Donald Trump announced Thursday evening in a Truth Social post that he was signing an executive order directing DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA workers.
Trump emphasized in his post that it was the Democrats' fault, led by Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), that Transportation Security Administration workers hadn't been paid, and that was because Democrats prioritize criminal illegal immigrants over American citizens.
Those Evil ICE Agents Are at It Again, This Time Saving the Life of a Little Boy in a TSA Line
The modified DHS funding bill now goes back to the House of Representatives for a vote.
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