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Trump Signs Legislation Funding DHS, Ending Shutdown
With Threat of Another TSA Pay Crisis Looming, Republicans Relent on Package — Which Does Not Include ICE Funding
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The longest partial shutdown in U.S. history ended April 30 after the House passed funding for most of the Homeland Security Department, just days ahead of missed paychecks for Transportation Security Administration workers that threatened to throw airports into chaos for a second time this year.
The Senate unanimously passed the funding package weeks ago, and President Donald Trump quickly signed it into law.
The bill had become an election-year battleground over Trump’s immigration crackdown, with Democrats demanding significant changes to enforcement tactics in exchange for their votes on the spending legislation. Republicans rejected their proposals and the shutdown dragged on.
In the end, both parties agreed to a measure that funds all of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol. Republicans plan to address boosts to immigration enforcement in a future partisan bill.
TSA agents called in sick early in the shutdown to protest missed paychecks, prompting Trump in late March to order that airport screeners be paid from other funds.
The White House warned Congress in a memo this week that those funds are running dry and that TSA screeners and other workers would go without pay in May without congressional action. ICE and Border Patrol already have funds for their activities from Trump’s 2025 tax and spending law and never faced working without pay.
With the threat of more airport turmoil looming, Republicans this week overcame internal differences to advance a plan to use a party-line budget process to fund an additional $70 billion for immigration raids through the rest of Trump’s term. Trump has urged lawmakers to move quickly on that measure and avoid wider policy squabbles over tax and spending cuts.
“We’re not going to have lines at TSA. Everybody will get their paychecks now,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said after the vote. “We will finish the work and finally — again for three years with no crazy Democratic reforms — we will fund Border Patrol and immigration enforcement as soon as we return to the next work session.”
Democrats, spurred by the killing of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota by DHS agents, had demanded restrictions on ICE enforcement activities, including stopping the use of masks by agents and a requirement to obtain a judicial warrant to enter private homes.
The Trump administration hasn’t agreed to any of the changes to ICE tactics Democrats sought despite the months-long shutdown.
Democrats have said Republicans are at odds with the majority of voters who want to see the agency reined in after the high-profile killings of protesters. The issue will come back to haunt the GOP in the midterms, Democrats said.
