Republicans push to end Homeland Security shutdown as shutdown fight shifts to reconciliation

WASHINGTON — Republican leaders in Congress are betting that a hardball budget maneuver can do what weeks of bargaining could not: end the prolonged shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security and unlock money for President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown without giving Democrats the policy concessions they want.

The shift came after House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced a new plan to fully fund the department, moving beyond the stalled talks that had left DHS partially shuttered for nearly two months. Democrats had been pressing for limits on federal immigration enforcement, including stronger identification rules for officers and greater use of judicial warrants. Republicans now say they intend to press ahead on their own, using the budget reconciliation process to try to pass a partisan funding bill with a simple Senate majority. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/430a63267c48a190dccceec8b7e5569b?utm_source=openai))

The immediate stakes are practical as well as political. DHS houses Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A prolonged funding lapse has meant uncertainty for employees and agencies already operating under intense scrutiny because of Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda. On Tuesday, Trump said he would sign an executive order to pay DHS workers who had gone without paychecks during the shutdown, underscoring how politically costly the stalemate had become. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/f95715d838be17afd9799208cd3182e3?utm_source=openai))

Why Republicans changed tactics

For weeks, Republican leaders tried to thread a narrow path between party conservatives who wanted to fully fund Trump’s immigration priorities and Democrats who wanted to attach guardrails to enforcement powers. The compromise effort broke down, and the party’s top two congressional leaders have now embraced a more partisan route. Thune said Republicans would fund ICE and Border Patrol “the hard way,” a reference to reconciliation, the complicated process that allows some budget measures to pass the Senate with 51 votes rather than the usual 60. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/30676a798d30267246d466b818b59d8c?utm_source=openai))

That is a notable tactical change. Reconciliation is typically used for fiscal legislation tied to spending, revenue or the debt limit, not as a clean substitute for bipartisan appropriations work. Yet in a narrowly divided Senate, it offers Republicans a path to bypass Democratic objections if party discipline holds. AP reported that the strategy still faces possible resistance from within the GOP, even with Trump’s support. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/30676a798d30267246d466b818b59d8c?utm_source=openai))

The move also reflects the reality of a Congress in which the White House and Republican leaders are closely aligned on immigration enforcement, but are still struggling to translate that alignment into stable funding. The latest fight followed a February funding bill that ended one partial shutdown but only kept DHS open for two more weeks, setting up the current standoff. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/471e55ba4c3247051739ee1b50b2857a?utm_source=openai))

Democrats want restraints on enforcement

Democrats have argued that funding the department should not mean writing a blank check for Trump’s immigration machinery. Their demands, according to AP, include clearer identification requirements for immigration officers and more frequent use of judicial warrants. Those provisions would not stop deportations or enforcement, but they would constrain the administration’s ability to carry out high-profile raids and detentions in ways Democrats say invite abuse. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/30676a798d30267246d466b818b59d8c?utm_source=openai))

That clash goes to the core of the current Congress: whether spending bills should be used only to keep the government open, or also to force policy changes on an administration determined to expand executive power. Democrats’ leverage is limited, because the Republicans control both chambers and the White House. But the prolonged DHS shutdown showed that Democrats can still exact a price by refusing to cooperate on must-pass legislation. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/430a63267c48a190dccceec8b7e5569b?utm_source=openai))

The shutdown has already become one of the defining domestic political fights of Trump’s second term. It has drawn in broader questions about immigration enforcement, due process and the balance of power between Congress and the executive branch. It also offers Democrats a way to frame Republicans as willing to keep a major public-safety department underfunded in order to expand the administration’s enforcement authority. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/30676a798d30267246d466b818b59d8c?utm_source=openai))

A test of Trump’s grip on Congress

The coming weeks will reveal whether Trump can keep Republicans unified behind a strategy that mixes confrontation, procedural complexity and presidential pressure. The White House has already signaled support for the GOP’s approach, and Trump has repeatedly used public statements to push Republicans toward a more aggressive posture on immigration funding. But the speaker and the Senate leader still have to assemble votes in chambers where a handful of defectors can change the outcome. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/430a63267c48a190dccceec8b7e5569b?utm_source=openai))

There is also a broader budget story unfolding around the shutdown fight. Last week, Trump released his 2027 budget request, proposing $1.5 trillion in defense spending while trimming domestic programs, a document that reflects his priorities but does not bind Congress. The budget proposal reinforces the administration’s overall message: defense, borders and internal security take precedence over much of the rest of the federal government. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/f95715d838be17afd9799208cd3182e3?utm_source=openai))

That makes the Homeland Security fight more than a narrow appropriations dispute. It is a preview of how Republican leaders may try to govern in a Congress where policy bargains are increasingly rare, budget process fights are becoming routine and the administration is willing to use every available lever to press its agenda. If reconciliation succeeds, it could become a template for other fights. If it fails, Republicans may be forced back to the same bargaining table they just left, only with less time and more political damage. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/30676a798d30267246d466b818b59d8c?utm_source=openai))

For now, the question is whether Congress can restore stable funding to a department at the center of Trump’s immigration crackdown without making the concessions Democrats demand. The answer will help determine not only how Homeland Security is financed, but how much room the minority party has left to shape the president’s agenda in the months ahead. ([apnews.com](https://apnews.com/article/30676a798d30267246d466b818b59d8c?utm_source=openai))