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In a significant political move, former President Donald Trump has thrown his support behind using the budget reconciliation process to secure funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol. This approach, which sidesteps the need for Democratic backing, is proposed to meet a June 1 deadline.
Trump’s endorsement aligns him with a strategic proposal previously passed by the Senate. However, this plan faced opposition from House Republicans, who felt caught off guard and expressed concern over dividing the funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The department has been inactive for a historic 47 days.
On Wednesday, Trump utilized his platform on Truth Social to advocate for the GOP-driven funding mechanism for ICE and Border Patrol. Notably, he did not address the funding strategy for the remaining components of the DHS.
In his post, Trump emphasized the need to support “our incredible ICE Agents and Border Patrol” through a process that excludes “Radical Left Democrat votes” and bypasses the Senate filibuster. He called for its immediate repeal and mentioned collaboration with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Leader John Thune. This budget reconciliation process allows legislation to pass with a simple majority, eliminating the requirement for a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
Trump further stated, “We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us. We will not allow them to hurt the families of these Great Patriots by defunding them.”
He goes on to ask for the bill to be passed by both chambers and sent to him “NO LATER than June 1.”
“Our Law Enforcement Officers and the American People should not have to wait until the Democrats see reason or, learn the hard way through the Polls,” he wrote. “Hopefully, everyone will be voting REPUBLICAN for the Midterms. Through simple unification, Republicans can do this without the Democrats!”
Johnson and House Republicans had strongly rejected a bill the Senate passed last week to split up DHS funding and set aside ICE and Border Patrol to be funded through reconciliation later, expressing anger at Senate Republicans for blindsiding the lower chamber by passing it in the wee hours of the morning by unanimous consent while most senators had already left town.
The House GOP responded by passing a stopgap measure to fund the entirety of DHS for eight weeks, but it soon became clear the Senate would not pass that deal.
GOP sources, The Hill reported earlier on Wednesday, had expected that Trump — who had not publicly endorsed one strategy or the other — would soon endorse the Senate plan to fund most of DHS and leave ICE and Border Patrol for a reconciliation bill.
Republicans have also been pitching use of the reconciliation process a second time this Congress to fund a host of other GOP priorities, such as supplemental funding for the Pentagon and to enact cuts and reforms intended to address fraud in federal programs. It is not clear whether that would be part of the reconciliation bill Trump is pitching by June 1.
ICE and CBP agents are currently being paid during the shutdown through “Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that was passed last year through the same reconciliation process, Trump noted.
In his post, he said the OBBB funding will continue to be used to “ensure that ICE and Border Patrol Agents are paid ON TIME, and IN FULL, as we have been doing for them throughout the Democrat Shutdown.”
“Immigration Enforcement will continue, and our Border will remain secure, with no Murderers, Drug Dealers, or Criminals of any kind entering our Country,” he said.
In the post he railed against Democrats for wanting to “DEFUND the Police, Border Patrol, and all Immigration Enforcement [and] allow Criminals, the Mentally Insane, and Lunatics from all over the World to come into our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked, putting Americans in serious danger.”
He said Americans should “should use this opportunity to reflect on the tens of millions of Illegal Aliens, including many Violent Criminals such as Murderers, Rapists, Human Traffickers, Child Molesters, and more, that Joe Biden and his Far Left Liberal Democrat Cronies in Congress (led by Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer) invited and allowed into our Country for the four years before I took office,” and vote Republican in the midterms.