Senate Votes to Fund Most of D.H.S. in Bid to End Partial Shutdown

The bill excludes funding for ICE and the Border Patrol but restores it for federal airport security workers. The House could consider the package on Friday.

The U.S. Capitol in Washington on Thursday.Credit...Eric Lee for The New York Times

By John Yoon and Michael Gold
March 27, 2026Updated 6:40 a.m. ET


The Senate voted early Friday to fund the Department of Homeland Security except for its immigration enforcement and deportation operations, raising the prospect of an end to a weekslong partial shutdown that has strained federal workers and caused long waits at airports.

The measure does not include funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Border Patrol, in effect reflecting a proposal that Democrats had offered for weeks as they refused to fund federal immigration enforcement operations without adding new restrictions on agents.

“Senate Democrats were clear: no blank check for a lawless ICE and Border Patrol,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said after the measure passed.

The bill must still be considered by the House, which could vote on it as soon as Friday. It was unclear whether the measure would pass that chamber, where Speaker Mike Johnson holds a narrow Republican majority. A number of hard-right Republicans have criticized the Senate’s approach and oppose a funding bill that does not include money for immigration enforcement.

Should the House approve the measure and President Trump sign it, the deal would end a negotiating standoff that caused the longest partial government shutdown on record.

The Senate’s agreement, which it passed in a voice vote at around 2:20 a.m., came hours after Mr. Trump said that he would direct the homeland security secretary to pay Transportation Security Administration agents, who have worked without pay since funding for the department lapsed on Feb. 14.

Catholic congressional Dems rebuke Mike Johnson’s biblical defense of ICE

by Jack Jenkins - Religion News Service

February 13, 2026

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, surrenders her electronic devices as she arrives for a closed Defense Subcommittee markup hearing on the Fiscal Year 2024 spending bill for the Pentagon, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 15, 2023. Credit: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite



WASHINGTON (RNS) — Some 40-plus Catholic Democrats in Congress have issued what amounts to a theological rebuke of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s scriptural defense for President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, outlining a series of religious principles as a deadline looms for lawmakers to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

The group’s Friday (Feb. 13) statement, led by Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro and shared first with Religion News Service, lists a series of ideals drawn from Catholic social teaching that the lawmakers say they consider when approaching immigration issues.

“First, we affirm that people have the right to migrate to sustain their lives and the lives of their families,” the statement reads. “Sacred Scripture consistently reminds us of our obligation toward the vulnerable and displaced. Jesus himself identifies with the migrant when he says, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’”

The statement refers to Pope Leo XIV’s first apostolic exhortation, “Dilexi Te,” noting that the pontiff argues the Catholic Church “knows that in every rejected migrant, it is Christ himself who knocks at the door of the community.”

The statement also says a nation has the right to “regulate its borders and to control immigration,” but doing so “is never a license for cruelty, indifference, or dehumanization.” It adds: “Border enforcement must be governed by justice and mercy.”

The lawmakers then pivot to a critique of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, saying federal agents working for the agencies have “too often … failed this moral standard.” DHS agents, the lawmakers say, have “separated families, removed law abiding individuals from our communities, and tragically, contributed to the deaths of detained migrants and citizens like Renee Good and Alex Pretti.”

The statement adds: “As leaders in Congress negotiate reforms to ICE and CBP, we must bear the Church’s teachings in mind to ensure we are supporting our immigrant brothers and sisters.”

WATCH: Border czar Tom Homan provides latest update on ICE in Minnesota

 

New Footage Shows Alex Pretti Confronting Feds Days Before His Death

Border czar Tom Homan holds press conference in Minneapolis

A previous confrontation on Jan 13th when Alex Pretti scuffles with Fede...

Man who appears to be Alex Pretti filmed interacting with federal agents

Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) Minneapolis MN

 

 

On Monday Night, 1/26/2025, Minnesota State Patrol used LRAD on Mob at the Springhill Suites by Marriott/Residence Inn Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport/Mall of America.

CBP and Federal Agents Shoot Tear Gas, Flash Bangs and Disperse Riot as ...

 

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Protesters STORM Minnesota hotel in apparent hunt for ICE agents after Alex Pretti shooting

The Sun

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Sign Damaged at Hotel Suspected of Housing ICE Agents in Minneapolis

BG On The Scene

Colorado parents of man killed in Minneapolis urged him to be careful at ICE protests

Alex Jeffrey Pretti “loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it,” his mother said

This undated photo provided by Michael Pretti shows Alex J. Pretti, the man who was shot by a federal officer in Minneapolis on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026. (Michael Pretti via AP)

The Associated Press

3:58 PM MST on Jan 24, 2026


The Colorado parents of a man killed Saturday morning by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis said they told their son recently to be careful when protesting.

Family members say Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an intensive care nurse at a Department of Veterans Affairs hospital who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city. He had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good, who was originally from Colorado, by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7.

His parents, who live in Colorado, urged him to be cautious.

“We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti, Alex’s father, told The Associated Press. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”

The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an AP reporter.

His parents said their last conversation with their son was a couple days before his death. They talked about repairs he had done to the garage door of his home. The worker was a Latino man, and Alex said with all that was happening in Minneapolis he gave the man a $100 tip.

“He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” Michael Pretti said. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”

As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.

Border Patrol addresses fatal Minneapolis shooting

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