• What Happened: President Trump announced he will sign an executive order to pay all DHS employees, bypassing Congress after 42 days of the longest partial government shutdown in history.
  • Why It Matters: Democrats demanded ICE reforms as their price for DHS funding and held the line for 42 days. Republicans are now bypassing them entirely, funding most of DHS through the Senate bill and ICE and CBP through reconciliation, which requires zero Democratic votes.
  • Bottom Line: Democrats used 50,000 federal workers as leverage to defund ICE. Trump just paid all of them anyway and is funding ICE through a process Democrats cannot stop.

After 46 days of the longest partial government shutdown in American history, President Trump announced Thursday he is done waiting for Congress.

"Because the Democrats are fully and 100% committed to the Radical Left Policy of Open Borders and Zero Immigration Enforcement, allowing Murderers and Criminals of all types into our Country, totally unchecked and unvetted, I will soon sign an order to pay ALL of the incredible employees at the Department of Homeland Security," Trump posted on Truth Social.

The executive order will expand his earlier directive to pay TSA workers, extending paychecks to all DHS employees who have been reporting to work without compensation for over six weeks, including FEMA workers, civilian Coast Guard employees, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency staff. ICE and CBP agents were already being paid through funding secured in last year's One Big Beautiful Bill.

The announcement came the same day the Senate unanimously passed a bill to partially reopen DHS, sending the measure back to the House. The bill funds TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and CISA but deliberately excludes ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Democrats have refused to vote for immigration enforcement funding since two Americans were fatally shot by federal agents in Minneapolis during Trump's deportation surge in January.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune returned to Capitol Hill during the congressional recess specifically to pass the bill by unanimous consent Thursday morning. The House, which rejected an identical bill last week with Speaker Johnson calling it "a joke," is now expected to pass it under a two-track deal Johnson and Thune announced Wednesday.

Under the agreement, Republicans will pass the partial DHS funding bill to end the shutdown, then pursue a separate reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CBP for three full years. Reconciliation requires only a simple majority, meaning Democrats cannot filibuster it. Trump has demanded the reconciliation bill reach his desk by June 1. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin was direct about what Democrats have been doing. "For over a month, the defund-the-police Democrats have kept DHS closed in an attempt to slow down ICE's efforts to remove murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists from our country."

Congress is on a two-week recess until April 13. The House did not take action during its Thursday pro forma session, meaning the shutdown continues at least through the week lawmakers return. But the path is now clear.

Democrats spent 46 days holding TSA workers hostage to protect ICE from accountability. Trump is paying those workers anyway. And ICE funding is coming through a process that needs zero Democratic votes.

As Trump put it: "Republicans are UNIFIED."