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The United States Senate approved a Republican budget resolution early Thursday morning with a vote of 50 in favor and 48 against to fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol, and sent the plan to the House of Representatives as the first step to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
According to a report by Telemundo 51, the voting concluded around 3:30 AM Eastern Time, following a marathon voting session of approximately five hours that began on Wednesday afternoon.
The budget resolution of 70 billion dollars would fund ICE and the Border Patrol for three years, until the end of President Donald Trump's term.
The Republicans used the budget reconciliation process, a maneuver that allows them to pass the measure with a simple majority, bypassing the filibuster that typically requires 60 votes in the Senate, where the party holds only 53 seats. This is the same mechanism they used last year to pass Trump’s tax and spending cut package.
The Senate had previously voted on DHS funding, but without ICE and the Border Patrol. Republicans in the House of Representatives stated that they would not present the bill to Trump for signing until the budget for these two agencies was resolved.
The resolution now approved moves to the House of Representatives, whose Speaker, Mike Johnson, has not yet set a date for a vote, leaving the question of when DHS will be able to reopen still open.
Johnson has stated that the order in which the two projects are processed is important, and he specified that lawmakers do not want to see the rest of the department funded without ICE and the Border Patrol.
"We have a multi-step process ahead of us, but in the end, Republicans will have helped ensure that the borders of the United States are secure and will have prevented Democrats from withdrawing funding from these important agencies," stated Republican John Thune, Senate Majority Leader.
The Democrats, for their part, proposed amendments to reduce healthcare spending and other costs.
"Instead of injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into ICE and the Border Patrol, Republicans should be working with Democrats to reduce direct costs," said Democrat Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader.
The DHS has been closed since February 14, when funding expired without an agreement between Republicans and Democrats, leaving over 270,000 employees affected, of which more than 258,000 are considered essential and have had to work without pay.
The political trigger for the closure was two fatal shootings of American citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis: a mother of three and , both 37 years old.
The cases sparked massive protests and demands for accountability, and the Democrats conditioned any funding for the DHS on the imposition of restrictions on immigration operations.
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