Senate takes key step toward funding ICE and border patrol with only GOP votes

By Morgan Rimmer, Sarah Ferris, Ted Barrett, CNN

(CNN) — With Congress at a stalemate over how to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Senate Republicans took a key step to tee up a party-line measure that would fund only the most controversial immigration programs — to eventually reopen the government completely.

The GOP effort to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border patrol without any Democratic support moved ahead after a marathon overnight session known as a “vote-a-rama” that stretched into the early hours of Thursday morning.

The chamber adopted the Senate GOP budget blueprint by a vote of 50-48, with all Democrats present opposed. Two Republicans, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky, broke ranks with their party, voting against the immigration funding.

The effort comes weeks after the Senate unanimously approved a package to fund the rest of DHS, including the Transportation Security Administration. House Republicans had rejected that bipartisan deal, prolonging the shutdown, because it did not include contentious funding for immigration enforcement.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has expressed hope that Senate GOP progress toward a distinct funding measure for ICE and border patrol will ensure the House adopts it as well.

The effort was part of Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s two-track plan for Congress to accept the partial reopening of DHS while pursuing immigration funding separately.

However, House GOP leadership has not committed to a timeline for funding the rest of the department.

Next steps on immigration funding measure

The House will next have to pass the same immigration funding measure ​— and then a GOP legislative package funding ICE and Customs and Border Protection will need to survive a parliamentary gauntlet in the Senate before another marathon vote series in the coming weeks.

This complicated process, called budget reconciliation, should allow Republicans in Congress to approve the funds without needing Democratic votes. Democrats have been clear that they won’t support any future funding for immigration enforcement unless there are major changes to ICE tactics and protocols, after two Americans were shot and killed by federal agents in Minnesota earlier this year.

Democrats aimed amendments during the “vote-a-rama” at changes to ICE policies and affordability issues they argue Republicans are ignoring ahead of the midterm elections.

“Tonight, Senate Republicans showed the American people where they stand – not for families struggling with the high costs of child care, groceries, gasoline, electricity, but for pumping $140 billion towards rogue agencies,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said from the Senate chamber moments after the measure passed.

“We will continue to force vote after vote on the most pressing issue facing Americans,” Schumer said. “Democrats are going to hold Republicans’ feet to the fire, because the American people demand it.”

Senate GOP leadership managed to keep their party together to vote down a slew of amendment votes that would have jeopardized the final measure. That includes one backed by ultraconservatives that would have included elements of President Donald Trump’s voter ID bill, which failed 48 to 50.

If it had passed, it could have added weeks to the timeline — while potentially ensnarling the bill in the chamber’s arcane budget rules.

Meanwhile, Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, hailed the passage of the measure, writing on X that “Republicans stuck together to do something Democrats are refusing to do: Fully fund the Border Patrol and ICE for three and a half years.”

Graham said Republicans in Congress are going to work with Trump to fast-track the budget reconciliation by the president’s June 1 self-imposed deadline.

The GOP’s two-track plan to pass funding for DHS comes as the shutdown, which began in mid-February, has had a heavy impact on travelers.

It led to hours of wait times at airports before the president ordered the department to use funds from the Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy package to pay the TSA officers and other agency staffers. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, however, warned this week that the agency doesn’t have enough money to continue to pay its employees through May.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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CNN’s Logan Schiciano contributed to this report.