The U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed their budget resolution Wednesday night, paving the way for the party to pass a bill in the coming weeks that will provide tens of billions of dollars in additional funding for immigration enforcement.
The 215 to 211 votes within the party line unlocks the complicated budget reconciliation process that will allow the GOP to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. Independent California Rep. Kevin Kiley, formerly a Republican, voted “present.”
The budget decision was approved passed by the Senate earlier this month and does not require Trump’s signature.
Combined with a separate Senate-passed bill that Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to submit to the House for a vote, the two measures are likely to ultimately end the shutdown at the Department of Homeland Security that began in mid-February.
Ranking member of the House Budget Committee Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said during floor debate that lawmakers should impose restrictions on immigration agents after they shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis earlier this year.
“I think the vast majority of the American people agree with me that we need a secure border, but that we cannot allow any agency of our government to carry out killings on our streets,” he said.
Republicans cut funding for ICE and Border Patrol from the annual DHS budget bill after negotiators failed to reach an agreement with Democrats on establishing modern guardrails on immigration activities.
Providing funding for those two agencies in a reconciliation bill allows Republicans to push the measure through the Senate without securing 60 votes to end debate, which would require bipartisan cooperation.
Immigration enforcement debate
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said the shutdown isn’t “just about the inconvenience of long lines at airports.”
“This is an unprecedented national and public safety crisis. And this is the moment we take the keys away from the children and say no more of this nonsense,” he added.
DHS includes the Coast Guard, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service and the Transportation Security Administration.
Arrington used his debate time to criticize Democrats for this demanding restrictions Regarding immigration officials, he argues that federal agents do not have to obtain a court warrant to enter a person’s home and detain a person in the country without proper documentation.
“There is no former Democratic or Republican commander in chief who would ever find this acceptable,” he said.
Democrats also called on federal immigration authorities to:
- Wear body cameras.
- Wear masks only in “extraordinary and unusual circumstances” to conceal their identity.
- Do not conduct hiking patrols.
- Do not detain people in certain places, such as places of worship, schools, or polling stations.
- Do not engage in racial profiling.
- Do not detain or deport American citizens.
Up to $140 billion
The GOP used the reconciliation process last year to pass his “big, beautiful” law, which included: another $170 billion for immigration and deportation enforcement.
The reconciliation bill that Republicans plan to pass next month could cost up to $140 billion, according to instructions in the budget resolution. But Republican lawmakers expect the price tag to be around $70 billion.
The additional funding is significantly higher than the $10 billion allocation for ICE and the $18.3 billion for Customs and Border Protection that Congress planned to approve earlier this year. The Border Patrol accounted for about $550 million of the CBP total.
White House officials have repeatedly urged lawmakers to quickly pass the reconciliation bill, which has not yet been released, and urged House Republicans to clear the Senate-passed DHS budget bill for Trump’s signature.
The Office of Management and Budget sent a memo This week we told lawmakers that the administration is running out of money to pay DHS employees during the shutdown.
“If these funds are exhausted, the government will no longer be able to pay all DHS staff beginning in May, once again having a devastating impact on air travel, leaving key law enforcement officials – including our brave Secret Service agents – and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and endangering national security,” it said.
