Federal immigration agents were at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to assist with airport security on March 23, 2026, during the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shutdown. On April 30, 2026, Congress finally passed a bill that funds the majority of the department for the remainder of the year. (Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed a bill Thursday that will fund nearly all Department of Homeland Security agencies for the next five months, ending the shutdown that began in mid-February.
The House of Representatives approved the bill, which does not include additional spending for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Border Protection, in a vote earlier in the day.
The DHS shutdown, the third funding shortfall in the last year, caused paychecks to stall for federal workers across much of the department, including those at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration.
Trump enacts this DHS budget proposal finally marks the end of the annual government funding process, which should be completed before the end of September.
Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, said during a brief floor debate that it was “damn about time” for Republican leaders to bring up the bill.
DeLauro said Democrats wanted to negotiate with Republicans “from the beginning” to address “armed, masked agents who are looting our streets and terrorizing people in our communities.”
“It was the Republicans who were adamant and unwilling to do this,” she said. “But here we go. Today we’re doing it. It could have been done 76 days ago. I’m doing it today.”
Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy said carving out funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Protection from the DHS funding bill was “insulting to the men and women who work in these agencies.”
“While we all agree on funding the rest of DHS, we are absolutely appalled that we are blowing up the appropriations process to target those brave men and women who are doing God’s work to protect us from cartels, dangerous actors and illegal immigrants on America’s streets endangering the American people,” he said.
Republicans plan to operate the complicated budget reconciliation process to fund ICE and the Border Patrol for the remainder of Trump’s term without negotiating fresh guardrails for immigration officials.
One shutdown after another
Instead of finalizing the dozen annual state funding bills before the Oct. 1 deadline, sturdy disagreements among lawmakers over funding and policy led to three shutdowns that stalled payrolls for federal workers and devastated hundreds of programs.
The first shutdown, which affected immense parts of the federal government, lasted 43 days as Democrats unsuccessfully tried to extend expanded tax credits for people who buy health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.
A partial shutdown Duration: four days ended in early February, when lawmakers approved an emergency budget bill for the Department of Homeland Security in addition to remaining full-year budget bills for other departments.
But legislators not reached a bipartisan agreement to impose restrictions on federal immigration agents before the ephemeral funding bill for DHS expires on February 14, leading to a third shutdown of the department.
Democrats in the Senate called for several restrictions against immigration officials after federal officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. While Republicans control both chambers of Congress, most bills cannot pass the Senate without the support of at least 60 lawmakers.
After nearly six weeks, Senate Republican leaders agreed to remove funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Protection from the DHS budget bill. send unanimously submits it to the House of Representatives for approval at the end of March.
House hanger
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said at the time that a plan to operate the complicated budget reconciliation process to provide three years of funding for ICE and Border Patrol was unacceptable. He refused to submit the Senate-passed bill to the House of Representatives for a vote.
The Senate tried it again At the beginning of April he sent an identical bill to the House of Representatives, but Johnson did not want to vote on it until Thursday.
The House vote on the DHS budget bill came less than a day after Republicans voted in that chamber voted for acceptance the budget resolution that sets the reconciliation process in motion. Republican Senators approved the tax and spending plan earlier this month.
The Congressional budget resolution is not a bill and does not need to be signed by the President to take effect. It doesn’t actually fund anything, but is intended to support lawmakers plan tax and spending policies for the next decade.
GOP lawmakers intend to operate the reconciliation process The budget resolution plans to pass a bill in the coming weeks that would provide up to $140 billion for ICE and Border Patrol. That eliminates the need to impose fresh restrictions on federal immigration officials in an effort to sway Democratic votes to limit debate in the Senate.
However, members of Congress still need to agree on funding for the rest of the government before the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Another impasse will mean another shutdown, just weeks before the November midterm elections.
