Senate approves funding for TSA and most of Homeland Security, but not immigration enforcement
The Senate approved Homeland Security funds early Friday morning to pay Transportation Security Administration officers and most other agencies, but not immigration enforcement operations, at the heart of the budget impasse that has blocked airports, disrupted travel and imposed financial hardship on workers.
The deal, which the Senate approved unanimously without a roll call, will then go to the House, which is expected to consider it Friday.
“We can open up at least a large part of the government again and then we’ll go from there,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “Obviously, we will still have work ahead of us. »
With pressure mounting to resolve the 42-day impasse over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the end game appeared in the final hours before TSA workers missed another paycheck Friday. President Trump said he would sign an order to immediately pay TSA agents, saying he wanted to quickly end “chaos at airports.” The deal included none of the restrictions Democrats demanded as they sought to curb Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.,…
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Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer said the outcome could have been reached weeks ago and vowed that his party would continue to fight to ensure that Trump’s “rogue” immigration operation “does not get more funding without serious reform.”
What’s in and out of the financing program
Senators worked through the night on a deal that would fund much of the rest of the department, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and the TSA, but without funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Customs was funded, but border protection was not.
The package imposes no new limits on immigration control, which has been largely uninterrupted by the shutdown. The GOP tax cut bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions in additional funds to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring that immigration agents still get paid despite this shortcoming.
The next steps in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., holds a slim majority, are uncertain. Its passage will almost certainly require bipartisan support, as lawmakers on both the left and right flanks revolt.
Conservative Republicans have rejected their own party’s proposals, demanding full funding for immigration operations. Many are committed to ensuring ICE has the resources it needs in the next budget package to implement Trump’s agenda.
Travelers queue in front of a TSA…
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“We will fully fund ICE. That’s what this fight is about,” said Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., as he tried to propose legislation to fund the agency. “The border is closing. The next task is deportation.”
The talks failed
Earlier Thursday, Thune announced he had made a “last and final” offer to Democrats. But as the day progressed, the action stopped.
Democrats argued that the GOP proposals did not go far enough to put safeguards on agents from ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and other federal agencies engaged in immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.
They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive locations. Democrats have also pushed to end administrative arrest warrants, insisting that judges approve before agents search people’s homes or private spaces — a new proposal that Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said he is willing to consider.
Trump had largely left the issue to Congress but warned he was ready to act, threatening to send the National Guard to airports in addition to his deployment of ICE agents who now check travelers’ ID cards.
The White House had taken the extraordinary step of invoking a national emergency to pay TSA agents, a politically and legally fraught approach. Instead, Trump’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 he was not authorized to discuss it publicly.
If the Senate bill is approved by the House and signed into law, Trump’s announced action to pay TSA agents could be temporary or unnecessary.
Airport lines grow as TSA workers face hardship
The funding shutdown has led to travel delays and even warnings of airport closures as TSA workers short of paychecks stop coming to work.
Several airports are experiencing TSA employee strike rates of more than 40%, and nearly 500 of the agency’s approximately 50,000 transportation security officers have resigned during the shutdown. Nationwide as of Wednesday, more than 11% of scheduled TSA employees missed work, according to DHS. This represents more than 3,120 calls.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union is grateful that TSA workers are being paid, but said Congress must remain in session to pass a deal “that funds DHS, pays all DHS workers and keeps these vital agencies running.”
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Melissa Gates said she would not catch her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than two and a half hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint. She said no other flights were available until Friday.
“I should have driven, right?” » Gates said. “Five hours would have been hilarious compared to that.”
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Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Kevin Freking, Rebecca Santana, Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington, Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston, Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
