Senate Passes Homeland Security Funding to Pay TSA Workers, Leaving Immigration Enforcement Out

Senate Majority Leader John Thune welcomed the vote but acknowledged more work remains. “We can get at least a lot of the government opened up again and then we’ll go from there,” he said. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the deal could have been reached weeks earlier and vowed Democrats would continue pushing to ensure Trump’s immigration operation “does not get more funding without serious reform.”

The core dispute centers on Democratic demands for new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including requirements for agents to wear identification, limits on face coverings, and an end to administrative warrants. Senator Martin Heinrich, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the funding package was “a step in the right direction” but maintained his position. “I will not support funding ICE without real reforms and a restoration to the rule of law,” he said. He added that Senate Democrats had made 14 separate attempts to fund the TSA, FEMA, CISA, and Coast Guard, each blocked by Senate Republicans.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins pushed back, saying Democrats “remained intransigent and unreasonable” in their demands. “Their refusal to fund ICE and Border Patrol leaves our borders and our country less secure,” Collins said.

ICE agents continued to be paid throughout the shutdown due to $75 billion in funding included in a GOP tax cuts bill signed into law last year. The financial toll on TSA workers, however, was severe. Since the partial shutdown began, nearly 500 of the agency’s roughly 50,000 transportation security officers have resigned. On Wednesday alone, more than 3,120 TSA employees scheduled to work called out, representing over 11% of the workforce on duty that day.