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.
