Senate GOP Capitulates Over DHS Funding, But Denies Democrats ICE Reforms
Chuck Schumer: “This is exactly what we wanted. This is what we asked for, and I’m very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line.”
Shortly after 2 a.m. Friday, Senate Republicans caved to Democrats. The Senate voted unanimously to advance a deal to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security. The agreement, however, provides no funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and parts of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The 53–47 vote came on the 42nd day of a shutdown that has wreaked havoc in airports nationwide and followed the Democrats’ seventh refusal on Thursday to accept a prior deal.
President Donald Trump, angry over the Democrats’ continued defiance, announced on Truth Social that he would sign an executive order “instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents.”
While Republicans ultimately conceded many of the Democrats’ demands, they point to what is, in fact, a silver lining. The deal excludes many of the reforms the Democrats had sought, such as forcing agents to unmask and requiring ICE officers to obtain judicial warrants before performing certain operations, such as entering someone’s home or making an arrest inside it.
Following the vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said, “We’ve been trying for weeks to fund the whole thing. 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.”
Fox News reporter Bill Melugin emphasized this point in the following X post. Because Senate Democrats rejected the Republicans’ offer on DHS funding, he noted:
Dems will get *zero* of the ICE reforms they had been demanding, including ones that GOP had already agreed to, like showing ID, increased Congressional oversight, agreements to not hit sensitive locations, etc.
These reforms were the reason Dems started the shutdown in the first place, and now instead of getting a few concessions on their demand list, they get none.
The only thing they secured was no funding for CBP & ICE, which are largely already funded via the OBBB, and Republicans will seek to fund them even further without Dem votes in reconciliation instead.
As for the Dem’s demand list on ICE reforms?
“That ship has sailed,” Sen. Majority Leader John Thune said this morning. “They kissed that opportunity goodbye by failing to provide funding for those agencies.”
Because Senate Democrats didn’t end up accepting the Republican offer on DHS funding & negotiations fell apart yesterday, Dems will get *zero* of the ICE reforms they had been demanding, including ones that GOP had already agreed to, like showing ID, increased Congressional…
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) March 27, 2026
Thune pointed out that, anticipating this precise scenario, Republicans included funding for ICE and CBP in last year’s “big, beautiful bill.” He explained:
The good news is we anticipated this a year ago. I mean, one of the reasons we front loaded, 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. I still think it’s unfortunate. The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms.
ICE and Border patrol + customs are already funded and have been for months. https://t.co/ieNtEqdNrN
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) March 27, 2026
Moreover, Thune added that he hopes to include additional funding for DHS in a reconciliation bill which requires only 51 votes to pass.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), of course, crowed over his “win.” He said, “This is exactly what we wanted. This is what we asked for, and I’m very proud of my caucus. My caucus held the line.”
He added that “this could have been done three weeks ago,” if Republicans had not tried to block their efforts.
The DHS funding deal now heads to the House, where Republicans are unlikely to welcome the concessions to Democrats. Still, they recognize the urgency of passing the bill.
In the X post below, conservative analyst Guy Benson reacts with frustration over the final result of the Republicans’ “fight.”
41 days of shutdown — during which four jihadist attacks took place, thousands of travelers were badly inconvenienced, and many federal workers didn’t get paid — all to achieve absolutely nothing. But they “fought”! https://t.co/LMOFo3K2zy
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) March 27, 2026
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
I think the title is click bait as the Democrats did not get anything they REALLY wanted (ICE reform).
So if someone could point out what exactly was capitulated over Id be grateful, especially as the thing Democrats REALLY wanted was not what they achieved (ICE reform).
In fact, Id take Bill Melugin’s post as being a lot closer to reality that the title of this article which says the GOP capitulated but doesnt tell us what they actually capitulated over.
Apparently, the capitulation was defunding ICE.
Yes, it’s funded until the end of the year, but all that gives us is a grace period,
Budget reconciliation can put ICE funding through without a filibuster with just 51 votes in the Senate, so the Dems can froth and fume, but not block it.
Reconciliation won’t work as thats not for adding things like DHS funding.
Democrats wanted ICE out of “sensitive” areas and no masks and disbandment and they got none of that AND ICE is funded for another couple years.
Absolutely nothing Democrats were demanding is what they got.
Reconciliation is for budgetary matters only so any funding including for DHS is fine. What probably won’t pass the Parliamentarian ruling is SAVE act provisions. It’s possible they could attach a funding mechanism to assist States with the ‘financial burden’ of compliance and then it might have a better shot at getting past the Parliamentarian. Even then the Parliamentarian can be overruled but Thune doesn’t seem willing to pull the trigger.
But they didn’t defund it. They simply didn’t add additional funding. It’s still got all the funding it had from the OBBB, which the Dems wanted to revoke.
So the day after Trump broke the paycheck logjam for TSA,,. the REPUBLICANS caved?
We’re screwed. Heritage Americans no longer have a political party.
gop playing their role in the demise of america but b/c the dems are sooo lefty ( and always have been) the gop is going to get enough anger votes to keep them in power
Correction — to keep them in OFFICE.
Their goal is to remain “just short” of power, even when they are in the majority.
their power over us is kept
you’ve been corrected
Even when the GOP ostensibly controls the U.S. Senate, they act as though they’re still the minority party. Plumb useless and feckless.
its disgusting
You cannot control the Senate with 48 Republicans and 5 RINOs.
Correct; hence my use of the word “ostensibly.” It’s galling as hell.
“ostensibly” Check.
Stop being so nice to the Republicans.
Democrats claim they held the line by not providing new annual money for ICE in this specific bill, however, they failed to secure any of the reforms they sought.
The final package bypasses Schumer’s demands: the ICE reforms (judicial warrants, unmasking) that Democrats spent 42 days fighting for.
they won the pr war…again
until we break that hold they have over our school system they will continue to wreak america
b/c once the schools system gets cut off rom funding and people hopefully teach their children self respect ..maga etc
then and only then will the msm lefty power fade
its not impossible but we cant get the gop to stop their welfare system support
The substance of the Senate deal tracks closely with Thune’s recent offers, with Trump’s executive pay order serving as cover to make the partial resolution more palatable for Republicans. It’s less of a full capitulation and more of a phased compromise during a shittie shutdown, airport disruptions, and internal GOP dynamics of which I admit I am not an expert on.
They won nothing and most people capable of running two or more functioning brain cells together will be wondering what exactly are democrats over the hill about 🤔
Winning a PR battle that’s only being waged by their low information voters is about as useful as a cock flavoured lollipop.
Schumer, by claiming victory when he has no such thing, is signaling to the party “Because I’ve declared victory, our base now believes we won. These issues are now passé and it’s time to stop discussing them and move on to the next manufactured political crisis, that we will also win simply because I will say so. Constant agitation against Trump stokes our base for the midterms.”
And Schumer’s demands would have crushed the ongoing ICE deportation process by adding so many restrictions and potential lawsuit-handles that the current flood of criminal aliens being sent home would turn to a trickle, and the voluntary deportations which are cruising along by the thousands likewise.
The higher they soar the longer the fall.
Reminds me of the leaders in Iran: they soared higher and higher until they had a great fall, then they fell longer, then replaced, then soared, then replaced, then soared, and so on and so forth.
Yeah, except their parachutes are working pretty good.
What this tells me is that the communist for getting negative feedback on their temper tantrum
Schumer wastes no time to gloat (not sure over what exactly). We all knew that was coming like we all know that at the end of the day the Democrats will be loathsome, at best.
I can accept this. Democrats gained nothing, Did they win the PR battle? Maybe with their based but those people are already lost. With Independents? It depends how informed they are and which way they lean? Bottom line – nothing changes. A big waste of time. A pain for the employees affected,
The primary d/prog objective was to prevent funding for CPB/ICE operational accounts and the support staff payroll (non LEO) until they got a bunch of ‘reforms’. Simultaneously holding DHS funds for TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard and so on hostage. The d/prog didn’t get their wish list.
The problem is the Senate Majority leader decided to allow passage by voice vote of a turd bill that the HoR ain’t gonna pass then left town. So we’re back where we began but without forcing the d/prog and reluctant GoP Senators to stay in DC on the clock to sustain a filibuster. Thune has in essence given the d/prog a two week pain free filibuster while severely PO the HoR and many of the base voters outside DC.
I know Republicans want to appear “nice” and cooperative, but maybe they should change their terminology for “reforms” which are mostly pro-Illegal Alien and anti-National Sovereignity.
Also, I think Republicans should hammer home the point that Democrats caused the airport slowdowns, and delayed paychecks for many DHS employees.
Johnson days it’s dead on arrival.
How could Thune be stupid enough to pass something without confirming the House would pass it?
It’s just bad politics, and Thune looks like a total clown
How is that stupid? You don’t seem to have a problem with the house passing things without confirming with the senate, so why do you expect the senate to confirm with the house? If the house doesn’t like this bill it’ll just have to go back to the senate, and Thune tells Schumer we tried it your way and the house rejected it, so you’ll have to sweeten it for them.
Senate R’s stated plan is to pass this DHS funding minus ICE/CBP funding and then, in a separate Reconciliation bill, pass the ICE/CBP funding.
But, no one imagines they can get that Reconciliation bill actually passed.
Worse, they didn’t even try. They caved to the D’s, passed the bill that did not include ICE/CBP funding, and went on vacation for two weeks.
Chip Roy mentions that most of ICE/CBP is funded by the “BBB” through the end of 2028 but that excludes administrative personnel. What he doesn’t mention is that it also doesn’t fund “ERO” – which is removal operations.
So, ICE/CBP agents are paid – but no deportations are taking place.
Why on earth not? They have the numbers for that.
They already have to do that anyway. They can’t enter private property without either the owner’s permission or a real warrant from a real judge.
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