In the early hours of Friday morning, the Senate passed by voice vote a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year. This came after a shutdown that had lasted more than 41 days.
The legislation will not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and will not fund border patrol, given that Republicans refused to meet Democrats even halfway after an ICE officer shot and killed Renee Good and CBP officials shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis two months ago.
But already, the House Freedom Caucus revolted over the fact the package did not include the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. That put Speaker Mike Johnson in a bind as he has sought to blame Democrats for the shutdown. Then, out of nowhere, Johnson torpedoed the deal and said Republicans would pass a two-month extension of Homeland security funding.
Both sides are in a staring contest and nobody wants to blink. Amid wraparound lines and cancelled flights at airports thanks to TSA officers not getting paid, President Donald Trump first sent ICE officers to airports.
By Thursday, he would instruct his newly-installed Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA officials. Johnson and Trump also seemed to be reading from the same hymnal, blaming Democrats for open borders while digging their heels in. Johnson had said he had spoken to the president, who was on board.
But removed a significant pressure point that Republicans could use against Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson had a running television showing the chaos at airports in front of his office.
This is easily the dumbest government shutdown of the 21st century. Neither side really “won” anything. Democrats did not get any guardrails to ICE’s practices since now Republicans are setting up a plan to fund ICE through the process of budget reconciliation, which allows them to avoid a filibuster.
But that comes with significant perils as well, because Johnson hopes to include funding for Trump’s war with Iran into the bill and the SAVE America Act in the bill. The last time Republicans did reconciliation–when they passed the One Big Beautiful Bill–they nearly ripped each other to shreds.
Here are the biggest villains in this whole mess and here’s how they are going to play out in the coming weeks.
Donald Trump
The president doesn’t write laws. He doesn’t appropriate funds, and he’s not responsible for passing a budget each year.
But since returning to power last January, Trump has taken little interest in the legislative gamesmanship and horse-trading that characterize relations between the White House and Capitol, especially on large, must-pass legislation such as appropriations bills.
Instead, he’s remained on the sidelines while allowing Johnson to be hijacked by a small group of the most extreme right-ward fringes of the GOP caucus that routinely rejects any compromise with the Senate because the Senate allows Democrats to have input into legislation — a sentiment he’s repeatedly encouraged through occasional Truth Social outbursts threatening to veto any legislation that puts any restrictions on immigration enforcement efforts.
Historically, Trump bullies the Freedom Caucus into folding. But if he remains checked out, he will face a major crisis on his hands as the internecine House-Senate warfare encouraged by Johnson causes his party’s approval ratings to sink lower and lower as the midterms loom.
House Speaker Mike Johnson
Despite his groaning, Johnson refused even the most modest reforms toward ICE. Similar to the administration, he said Good “weaponized” her vehicle against an ICE agent. When asked about why not force ICE to remove their masks, he said “ICE agents are being doxxed and targeted.”
Now, Johnson owns this shutdown. The Senate passed a bill to reopen the department and ICE is already pre-funded until 2029 to carry out Trump’s mass deportation agenda. If brought to the floor, the bill would likely receive unanimous support among Democrats and even a large contingent of Republican support. Instead, Johnson is afraid of an internal revolt from his own party, so he is bucking the Senate.
Kristi Noem and the Department of Homeland Security
This shutdown would have been avoided had it not been for the killings of Good and Pretti. But Noem proceeded to not only call them “domestic terrorsts.” She refused to apologize when given the opportunity to do so. Noem also led the agency as Trump dispatched it to Minneapolis and regularly tried to show overwhelming muscle.
The Trump administration’s mass deportation regime was no longer seen as protecting the country from dangerous criminals but rather a rogue law enforcement agency patrolling the streets of American cities. The rash decision-making and immediate attempts to smear American citizens led to Noem’s ouster. But many of the other architects of Trump’s mass deportation regime such as border czar Tom Homan and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller will remain, meaning little will change at the agency.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune
The fact that the majority leader split off Homeland Security funding from the rest of the government spending package spoke to the outrage Americans felt about ICE’s actions.
But as negotiations continued, Thune and the Republican conference did not give one inch on ICE reform. By the end of it, Thune and Republicans all but admitted that they would have to pass additional ICE funding in budget reconciliation, which would allow them to sidestep a filibuster.
Thune and Republicans ultimately relented and realized Democrats were never going to give up. But now, he has Johnson saying that Thune is not really in control of the Senate, House conservatives angry at him and Trump breathing down his back to terminate the filibuster, with no solution to the shutdown in sight.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer
When CBP officers in Minneapolis killed Pretti, Schumer saw it as a moment of leverage and said immediately that Democrats would not vote to fund ICE.
In fairness to Schumer, he did a decent job this shutdown compared to the last shutdown in keeping his caucus together with almost no defections.
But the fact remains that even amid a DHS shutdown, ICE would still have money given that Republicans had pre-funded the agency to the tune of $75 billion in 2025 under the One Big, Beautiful Bill without DHS being funded.
Schumer risked putting his most vulnerable incumbent, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, at risk as lines wrapped around at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Schumer has had a target on his back for being inept from both progressives and even some moderates. He held tough this go-around, but without much to show for it.
