April 1 (UPI) — Republican congressional leaders said Wednesday they would work to pass a two-track plan to pass legislation funding immigration enforcement separately from the rest of the Department of Homeland Security after President Donald Trump showed support for the move.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump called on Congress to put a bill on his desk by no later than June 1 to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
DHS has gone without funding since Feb. 14, and, at 46 days, is the longest partial government shutdown in history. Democrats have held up legislation funding the department as leverage to reform ICE and Border Patrol in response to actions amid a federal immigration enforcement surge in cities earlier this year.
Trump said he supposed a proposal by Senate Republican leader John Thune to pass the DHS funding bill without ICE and Border Patrol included until reconciliation legislation later.
“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,” Trump said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson initially rejected the two-track plan, but after Trump’s post, he and Thune issued a joint statement backing the idea.
“In the coming days, Republicans in the Senate and House will be following through on the President’s directive by fulling funding the Department of Homeland Security on two parallel tracks: through the appropriations process and through the reconciliation process,” the joint statement said.