The House passes a budget plan to fund ICE and CBP through reconciliation

The House of Representatives approved a budget plan to fund immigration for the rest of President Donald Trump's term over strong opposition from Democrats on Wednesday.

Lawmakers voted 215-211 along party lines to take critical action to end the Department of Homeland Security's record funding shortfall that began in Feb. 14.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, Calif., a Republican, voted yes. House Democrats are united against the measure to enforce immigration while all Republicans in attendance voted to support it.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can save just a handful of defections with a slim majority of Republicans.

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The House's approval of the Senate-passed budget framework opens a partial budget reconciliation process, which Republicans are using to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection without the support of congressional Democrats.

Trump gave Republicans a June 1 deadline to send a budget reconciliation bill to his desk, giving GOP leadership little room for error.

“We have a real sense of urgency in doing this,” Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday.

The successful vote came after more than a dozen GOP lawmakers ranging from conservatives to farm-state and Midwestern Republicans withheld their votes because of concerns unrelated to the budget framework.

Republican leaders held the vote open for more than five hours to win over dozens of absentees and six GOP lawmakers who voted “no” before “yes.”

Those lawmakers include Reps. Max Miller, R-Ohio, Andy Harris, R-Md., Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., and Michael Cloud, R-Texas.

“That's why they say law enforcement is like watching sausages being made,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. “That's it, but we'll do it.”

The budget decision that includes funding for Trump's immigration agenda is one part of DHS's funding strategy.

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House GOP leadership is unclear when they plan to act on Senate-passed measures to fund the entire department.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., agreed on a two-track approach to funding DHS by going around Democratic opposition weeks ago. But Johnson has so far refused to put the Senate's DHS bill on the House floor because of concerns that it would defund immigration enforcement.

Johnson said earlier this week that some “changes” to the measures may be needed but did not elaborate on specific changes.

The White House on Tuesday sent an internal memo to the Hill's offices, obtained by Fox News Digital, urging passage of the Senate DHS bill, increasing pressure on Johnson to act.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., successfully pushed a budget plan through the House of Representatives that includes three years of funding for President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agenda on Wednesday. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg)

Most rank-and-file House Republicans want ICE and the Border Patrol funded before the entire department, which could mean delays of several weeks.

“I think there's a big problem with this bill because it doesn't eliminate, ICE and CBP,” Rep. Eric Burlison, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News. “It's one thing not to use the funding, but it's another thing to put zeros in the bill.”

“I know that the speaker is working to make sure that we have all the assurances and maybe the money on hand about reconciliation is wrapped up, completed before we take away 95% of Homeland Security,” said House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas.

Meanwhile, the White House is warning that it will be short of money to pay hundreds of thousands of department workers starting in May.

“If this funding ends, the Administration will not be able to pay DHS employees beginning in May, which will further disrupt air travel, leave law enforcement — including our brave Secret Service agents — and the Coast Guard without pay, and jeopardize national security,” the White House memo published Tuesday.

House Republicans' approval of the Senate plan also effectively closes the door to adding other GOP priorities to the budget package. Some GOP lawmakers have floated adding provisions focused on procurement, defense funding and the SAVE America Act to the bill.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said Wednesday that the House of Representatives is unlikely to pass the Senate's DHS bill until progress is made on immigration funding. (Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg)

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GOP leaders have argued for weeks that the big bill risks derailing the budget reconciliation process.

“We're focused on funding Homeland Security and stopping the Democrat shutdown, and, in particular, we're using reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP because Democrats have refused to fund it,” Arrington said. “Everything else is wrong with this conversation.”