Senate unanimously moves to fund most of DHS, except ICE and border patrol, in rare overnight session

The Senate unanimously moved to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security, except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and part of Customs and Border Protection, in a rare overnight session.

The agreement would fund other DHS components, such as the Transportation Security Administration and US Coast Guard, but the House will still need to act before funded agencies within the department can reopen.

After negotiations fell apart earlier Thursday evening, senators focused on moving the funding they were able to agree on by unanimous consent. On his way to the floor in the wee hours of the morning on Friday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters, “We’re gonna execute on as much as DHS as we can tonight, and then we’ll fund the rest of it later.”

The standoff over funding for DHS has withheld pay for thousands of TSA agents and other DHS workers, causing major travel delays and scores of missed flights nationwide. Frustration on Capitol Hill hit new levels this week, and senators pushed to end the impasse before a scheduled two-week recess.

Pressed on what specifically would be funded, Thune replied, “I think it’ll be everything but ICE and CBP today. So, we’ll have to do the rest of that,” though he noted that, “I think customs, they cleared customs,” but not border patrol.

Although the bill passed by the Senate doesn’t include funding for ICE and border patrol, Republicans had already made provisions to fund those agencies as part of their massive domestic policy package last year. “The good news is we anticipated this a year ago,” said Thune. “I mean, one of the reasons we frontloaded, pre-loaded up the one, big, beautiful bill with advanced funding for Homeland Security was because we anticipated this was likely going to happen, and it did.”

Thune said that he spoke with President Donald Trump earlier Thursday evening, before Trump announced he would direct DHS to pay TSA agents even if the department remained unfunded.

“I talked to him earlier today, right before he made his announcement. So yeah, I mean he anticipates what we’re attempting to do here,” he told reporters.

However, asked whether he believes the House will adopt the same measure to fund most of the department, Thune said, “I don’t know what the House will do.”

“I mean, the House is aware of what we’re contemplating, I think, and I — think they’re probably anxious to take this up any more than, you know, this time of the day, on a Friday, but hopefully they’ll be around and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we’ll, we’ll go from there,” he continued.

Thune argued that, while Democrats had initially said they would fund everything but ICE and CBP, Democrats have now lost the opportunity to leverage changes to ICE protocols and tactics. “I still think it’s unfortunate,” he said. “The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms. But, you know, we’re going to have to fight some of those battles another day.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared he was “very proud” of his caucus that “stood united” amid the ongoing DHS shutdown.

“In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Senate Democrats were clear: no blank check for a lawless ICE and border patrol. This long overdue agreement funds TSA, the Coast Guard, FEMA, CISA, strengthens security at the border in the ports of entry, and keeps Americans safe,” announced Schumer.

“This could have been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn’t stood in the way. Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly, deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms. I’m very proud of our Democratic caucus. Throughout it all Senate Democrats stood united. No wavering, no backing down. We held the line.”

Thune pointed out that, with negotiations collapsing, Senate Democrats did not get the changes to ICE protocols and tactics they had previously demanded, and argued, “Democrats didn’t actually want a solution.”

“They wanted an issue. Politics over policy, self-interest over reform, pandering to their base instead of actually solving the problem,” the South Dakota Republican added.

This story has been updated with additional details.