Senate Greenlights Funding for TSA and Homeland Security, Leaves Immigration Enforcement Unfunded

In the early hours of Friday, the Senate passed a bill to allocate funds for the Department of Homeland Security, ensuring that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents and most other agencies receive pay. However, the funding package notably excludes the immigration enforcement activities at the center of the budget deadlock, which has caused significant disruption at airports, travel delays, and financial strain on federal workers.

The Senate approved the measure unanimously, bypassing a roll call vote, and it will now proceed to the House of Representatives, which is anticipated to review it later on Friday.

“We can reopen a significant portion of the government and then address the remaining issues,” stated Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota. “There’s still more work to be done,” he acknowledged.

With tensions escalating over the 42-day impasse related to Homeland Security funding, a resolution began to take shape just as TSA employees faced the possibility of missing yet another paycheck. President Donald Trump announced his intention to sign an order to immediately compensate the TSA workers, aiming to end what he described as “Chaos at the Airports.” The agreement did not incorporate any limitations that Democrats have pushed for in their efforts to curtail Trump’s extensive deportation policies.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer pointed out that this resolution could have been achieved weeks ago and pledged that his party would persist in efforts to prevent additional funding for Trump’s “rogue” immigration operations without meaningful reforms.

What’s in and out of the funding package
Senators worked through the night on the deal that would fund much of the rest of the department, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and TSA, but without funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Customs was funded, but Border Protection was not.

The package puts no new limits on immigration enforcement, which has remained largely uninterrupted by the shutdown. The GOP’s big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions in extra funds to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring the immigration officers are still being paid despite the lapse.

Next steps in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., holds a slim majority, are uncertain. Passage will almost certainly require bipartisan support, as lawmakers on the left and right flanks revolt.

Conservative Republicans have panned their own party’s proposals, demanding full funding for immigration operations. Many have vowed to ensure ICE has the resources it needs in the next budget package to carry out Trump’s agenda.

“We will fully fund ICE. That is what this fight is about,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said as he tried to offer legislation to fund the agency. “The border is closing. The next task is deportation.”

On-again, off-again talks collapsed
Earlier Thursday, Thune announced he had given a “last and final” offer to the Democrats. But as the day dragged on, action stalled out.

Democrats argued the GOP proposals have not gone far enough at putting guardrails on officers from ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and other federal agencies who are engaged in the immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.

They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Democrats have also pushed for an end of administrative warrants, insisting that judges sign off before agents search people’s homes or private spaces – something new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said he is open to considering.

Trump had largely left the issue to Congress, but warned he was ready to take action, threatening to send the National Guard to airports in addition to his deployment of ICE agents who are now checking travelers’ IDs.

The White House had floated the extraordinary move of invoking a national emergency to pay the TSA agents, a politically and legally fraught approach. Instead, Trump’s order would pay TSA agents using money from his 2025 tax bill, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.

If the Senate package is approved by the House and signed into law, the action Trump announced to pay TSA agents would not be needed.

Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships
The funding shutdown has resulted in travel delays and even warnings of airport closures as TSA workers missing paychecks stop coming to work.

Multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates of TSA workers and nearly 500 of the agency’s nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have quit during the shutdown. Nationwide on Wednesday, more than 11% of the TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS. That is more than 3,120 callouts.

Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union is grateful the TSA workers will be paid, but said Congress must stay in session to pass a deal “that funds DHS, pays all DHS workers, and keeps these vital agencies running.”

At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Melissa Gates said she would not make her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2 hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint. She said no other flights were available until Friday.

“I should have just driven, right?” Gates said. “Five hours would have been hilarious next to this.”