Senate approves deal to end DHS shutdown without Democratic immigration demands

Senators passedapproved a last-ditch Homeland Security funding billcompromise measure early Friday to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security through the end of September, moving onetaking a major step closer totoward ending the 42-day partial shutdown that has sparked majorseen hundreds of airport security workers quit after missing paychecks and snarled travel chaos at airports across the USnationwide. The last-ditch dealagreement, struckpassed by voice vote before lawmakers headed offsenators departed Washington for spring breaka two-week recess for Easter and Passover, will see most ofbe considered by the DepartmentHouse later Friday morning. The last-ditch deal does not include any of Homeland Security reopened, but contains no funding provisions forthe demands Democrats have placed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — including that agents be barred from wearing masks and partsoperate under tougher warrant requirements to detain illegal migrants. The bill does not provide funding for ICE or Border Patrol, but those subagencies already received billions of Customsdollars under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by Trump this past July and Border Protectionimmigration enforcement has gone on uninterrupted by the shutdown. Nevertheless, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (CBPD-NY). proclaimed that Democrats are framinghad “held the outcome as a win, but their demands for ICE agents to be unmasked were notably absent from the billline.” “In the wake of the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Democrats were clear: No blank check for a lawless ICE and Border Patrol,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY,he said. “We held the line.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, (R-South Dakota,SD) said the bill was “not the way to fund the department. But, we were out of time.” “The Dems wanted reforms,” Thune said, according to Politico . “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.” The bill still has to make its way to the House“We can get at least a lot of Representativesthe government opened up again and be signed by President Trump before it becomes law. However, itthen we’s one step closer to ending the shutdown, which has seen Transportation Security Administration workersll go without payfrom there,” he added. Senate Democrats blocked a bid to endThe deal cleared the partial shutdown earlier Thursday beforeSenate hours after President Trump vowed TSA agents would get paid as he promisedwould sign an emergency order to relieve airport congestion. “We’ve been trying for weeks to fund the whole thing,” Thune said. “And, I mean,paying Transportation Security Administration agents 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 usdanger of missing a little bit on thatsecond full paycheck Friday.” It was That announcement came after most Senate Democrats voted for the seventh time Democrats had blocked bills to end the shutdownblock considering of a bill to fund DHS. “Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do!” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post . “I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin , to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports . It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!,” he wrote. Trump warned about the possibility of having to take “drastic measures”had predicted during a Thursday morning cabinet meeting he would have to take “drastic measures” if the stalemate on Capitol Hill didn’t end. He previously floated sending the National Guard to airports to supplement ICE agents. The president’s order would pay TSA agents using money from his 2025 tax bill, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly. If the Senate package is approved by the House and signed into law, the action Trump announced may be temporary or unneeded. Almost 500 security officersairport screeners have quit duringsince the partial shutdown began Feb. 14, and more than 11% of employees called call-out rates have surged to double-digits, well above the roughly 2% rate before the funding lapse, the agency’s acting administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, told lawmakers Wednesday. Those staffing pressures have caused some wait times at airports to exceed 4.5 hours, the longest in the TSA’s 25-year history. ICE agents have been deployed to airports across the US – and have been checking travelers’ IDs and managing crowds in a bid to ease the congestion, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Trump’s border czar Tom Homan told CNN  last Sunday that immigration agents are not trained to carry out specialized security screenings. He explained the purpose of ICE being stationed at airports was to help free TSA staffers who had clockedGeorge Bush Intercontinental Airport in for shifts. TSA wait times have varied across the country. Travelers heading out of Houston airport werehas seen some of the worst delays, with passengers being warned Thursday that they could face wait times of four hours or more, KPRC reported. This is because the city’s setPassneger Melissa Gates said she would not make her flight to see more visitors heading into town for the premier energy conference CERAWeek and the NCAA men’s basketball tournamentBaton Rouge, La. But, wait times at airports that use private contractors for security are just minutes – with travelersafter waiting more than 2.5 hours and still not really feelingreaching the effects of the shutdownsecurity checkpoint. The average wait time at Sarasota airport, Florida, was She said no other flights were available until Friday. “I should have just three minutes and almost 300driven,000 travelers were screened over the past 30 days, the New York Times reported right?” Gates said. Wait times at Kansas City and San Francisco airports “Five hours would have largely been kept under 10 minuteshilarious next to this.” With Post wires