FINALLY: The DHS Shutdown Is Coming to an End...Sort of

Townhall ^ | 04/01/2026 | Matt Vespa

[SeekAndFind]

There are mixed emotions here: It’s good that the Department of Homeland Security shutdown is ending. It’s ridiculous that Congress had to go through multiple rounds to fund just one agency, making the latter part of this saga a Republican circus. Make no mistake, this was a Democrat-caused shutdown. They supported it, kept TSA workers without pay, causing many to quit, and left our homeland vulnerable to terror attacks during Operation Epic Fury. We haven’t even considered the natural disaster scenarios that could’ve occurred; FEMA would’ve been paralyzed. 

Alas, the House GOP is going to support John Thune and the Senate Republicans’ plan, which is to fund most of DHS now and then fund the rest of ICE and Border Patrol through reconciliation (via CBS News):

NEW — House Republicans cave to the Senate on DHS funding after Trump’s Truth Social post

Joint statement from Thune & Johnson:

pic.twitter.com/4p6rAzsBKV— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) April 1, 2026

Johnson/Thune joint statement on DHS spending. Announce 2 track approach to end DHS funding. Plan is for the House to pass Senate approved bill (cleared by all 100 senators at 2:19 am et Friday which Johnson declared “a joke”) which funds all of DHS except ICE/Border Patrol. Then use budget reconciliation to pass the rest in the coming weeks/months. Johnson/Thune: “We appreciate and share the President’s determination to once and for all bring an end to the Democrat DHS shutdown.

“In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’sdirective by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process.

“We appreciate that Senator Graham and the Senate Budget Committee have already initiated the process of developing a budget resolution that will ensure border security and immigration enforcement will be funded for the balance of the Trump Administration and insulated from future attempts by the Democrats to defund those agencies.

“We operated under a belief that while our country is in the midst of an international armed conflict, Democrats might finally come to their senses and understand that defunding our homeland security agencies is beyond reckless and very dangerous. While we hoped they would accept the 60-day CR to fund the Department entirely so that bipartisan negotiations could continue, it is now abundantly clear that Democrats place allegiance to their radical left-wing base above all else — including their own power of the purse — which means open borders and protecting criminal illegal aliens. That is not acceptable to Republicans in Congress, nor is it to the American people. We cannot allow Democrats to any longer put the safety of the American public at risk through their open border policies, so we are taking that off the table.

“In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited. In return, Democrats will once again demonstrate to the American people their support for open borders and keeping criminal illegal immigrants in America”

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) April 1, 2026

Republican leaders in Congress and President Trump unveiled a plan Wednesday to end the partial government shutdown and fully fund the Department of Homeland Security, mirroring a framework that the Senate pursued last week before it was quickly batted down by House Republicans.  

House GOP leadership spent all day last Friday criticizing Senate legislation that split off immigration enforcement funding from the rest of DHS, but they now appear to have reversed course.

In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump demanded that Congress fund ICE and Border Patrol through reconciliation, which would allow Republicans to pass a bill without Senate Democrats. He told lawmakers to get the legislation to his desk by June 1.  

"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," Mr. Trump said.  

The plan would fund most of DHS until October through an appropriations bill while funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through reconciliation. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune soon said they would work to make it happen. 

"In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President's directive by fully funding the entire Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process," Johnson and Thune said in a joint statement. 

That was the cause of the legislative chaos: the Senate GOP passed this plan by voice vote and quickly left. That left the House stuck, and they also initially disliked the plan. They decided to pass a 60-day continuing resolution and then left the Capitol until April 13. It’s bad enough to have intraparty fights—institutional rivalries have made it even worse.

The good news is that Democrats won’t get any concessions on ICE. There will be no judicial warrants or de-masking provisions. They will receive three years of significant funding. So, yes, the Democrats scored a messaging win for a few days. They also got GOP fingerprints on the DHS shutdown, as the Senate voted to re-open most of it, which was later blocked by the House.  

This situation couldn’t last, as President Trump’s order for DHS to pay TSA agents with funds from last year’s tax bill and ICE's deployment at airports to ease security line pressures were temporary fixes.  

The Republicans finally recognized what many of us knew days ago: that the Democrats are legislative terrorists; they want DHS to stay shut down, and their base gives them the cover to keep this reckless stunt going. Not anymore. Game over.  

Also, for the future, don’t listen to Democrats on anything. They’re too unhinged. They moved the goalposts. For clarity, this fund, DHS, except for ICE and CBP, was a Democrat proposal. They reneged at the last minute.  

No more games. And the GOP still nuke the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act and whatever the hell else we want. Enough of this. 

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TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: dhs; funding; homelandsecurity; ice; shutdown; tsa

[ByteMercenary]

Reading the headline I hoped that it was about shutting down DHS altogether ...

[Theophilus]

I was hoping DHS would shutdown forever. It was a exhorbitant and punitive abomination (anaphylactic shock), imposed on us American victims, in 2002 and ever since.

If the necessary and desirable functions of DHS, like Border Protection, had stayed where they belong, it would be much harder for the Demonrats to exploit them.