Senate GOP vows to ‘go it alone’ on ICE funding as Dems double down on shutdown

Senate Republicans are meeting with President Donald Trump Friday to crystallize a plan to fund immigration operations that would cut out Democrats altogether.

Congressional Republicans are turning to the party-line budget reconciliation process to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for years to come in a move that can’t be blocked by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Republicans have a short timetable to get the job done given that Trump has set a deadline for the bill to be on his desk by June 1.

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Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said he and Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are meeting with Trump on Friday to prepare the framework of the package.

“We’re going to have to go it alone because Democrats aren’t interested in funding national security at a time of increased concerns around the world,” Barrasso said.

Republicans will first have to produce a budget resolution to provide guardrails for the forthcoming package. Barrasso said Senate Republicans plan to do it in a “targeted way, focused and get it done fast.”

A key hurdle in the process, however, is getting both House and Senate Republicans aligned on a plan. Senate Republicans want to keep a reconciliation package as narrow as possible, while some in the House are eyeing funding the entire Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in one massive bill.

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Graham said recently that he envisions two reconciliation bills in 2026, one targeting ICE and CBP and another serving as a vehicle for several GOP priorities, including portions of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act and provisions to tackle fraud.

“Reconciliation has limits, but we’re going to make a down payment on the SAVE Act in reconciliation in the fall,” Graham said Monday on a South Carolina radio show, “Straight Talk with Bill Frady.”

But a key House GOP voice won’t be there.

A source told Fox News Digital House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, Graham’s counterpart in the process, will not attend the White House meeting Friday, and noted that it was a Senate-only confab.

Barrasso said there would likely be discussions on a “number of topics” for reconciliation, but the end goal for Senate Republicans remains funding ICE and CBP.

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“What I’m telling you today is we’re moving ahead in spite of incredible obstruction by the Democrats,” Barrasso said. “We’re focusing immigration and funding, immigration custom enforcement and border patrol, with Republican votes alone using reconciliation.”

Senate Democrats aren’t backing down from their shutdown position. Their demand for reforms to immigration operations, like requiring judicial warrants to search people’s homes and unmasking DHS agents in exchange for funding ICE and CBP has led the ongoing shutdown to stretch beyond 50 days.

Despite being cut out of the funding process altogether under Republicans’ reconciliation plan, Democrats still view their position as a winning strategy.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., argued that, as with the creation of the 2025 “big, beautiful bill,” Republicans will likely look for areas to cut spending to fund ICE and CBP, a move that could come back to bite them in the midterm elections.

Kim told Fox News Digital Republicans bypassing Democrats to fund immigration operations does not make their shutdown posture “moot.”  

“We’re trying to make sure we’re standing up for the voice of the American people. If Republicans want to go around the American people, then they will answer to voters in November,” Kim said.

“And the Democrats, we will find our way back into gavels and power, and we will do what we can at that point to do what the American people wanted from the start, which is to focus on their concerns and not have this, you know, army of masked ICE agents without identification, without judicial warrants, terrorizing our neighborhoods.”