Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-D., speaks to reporters on March 3, 2026. Standing around him from left to right are Republicans Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, John Barrasso of Wyoming and Tim Scott of South Carolina. (Photo: Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that he plans to operate the sophisticated reconciliation process to fund immigration enforcement for the next three years, although it was not immediately clear whether House Republicans are on exactly the same page.
A plan to fund the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol with only Republican votes could end a two-month shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security, coupled with a bill to regularly fund the department passed by the Senate already approved but it stuck in the House.
Thune, R-S.D., said during an afternoon news conference that House GOP leaders “could” add additional provisions to the reconciliation bill, but said he would prefer it remain narrow.
“I hope that if we can get it done here in the Senate, the House will be able to get it done,” he said.
Thune said the Senate could vote as early as next week on a budget resolution that includes reconciliation instructions. This is the first step complicated process. But the House must vote to pass this budget resolution before Republicans can pass a bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Department of Homeland Security closed
The Department of Homeland Security was shut down on February 14 after Democrats pushed for fresh protective barriers to immigration enforcement following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal immigration officials.
Without bipartisan consensus on how to do this, Republicans opted instead to operate the same reconciliation process they used last year to pass their “big, beautiful” law approving funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
The House would then likely pass the DHS spending bill without these two items, which the Senate has already approved. It would provide funding to other agencies within the department, including the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration.
Security requested
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a separate news conference that Democrats have repeatedly asked for “common sense” protections that would require immigration agents to show ID, prevent them from wearing masks and require court orders to enter someone’s home.
“The bottom line is that they are simple. They follow common sense,” he said. “Every police department uses them, and when you ask the American people, they are on our side. It’s about being uncompromising, especially from the far right who seem to like what ICE is doing.”
Schumer said Democrats would operate the marathon vote on amendments on both the budget resolution and the subsequent reconciliation bill to keep Republicans “under their feet on DHS, war and many other issues.”
Thune said he was “trying to figure out exactly” what Democrats gained by shutting down DHS, especially considering it had no impact on immigration enforcement operations since funding was provided for it in last year’s reconciliation bill, exempting those programs from funding lapses.
“All these things that Democrats were talking about that were supposed to be reforms to the way ICE and CBP operate. They got none of it. Zero,” he said, referring to Customs and Border Protection, the larger agency that includes the Border Patrol. “And now we are going to fund these agencies for three years into the future.”
