NEED TO KNOW

• Senate GOP senators left a Monday White House meeting saying a DHS funding path exists
• Emerging deal funds most of DHS now — ICE deportation operations carved out for later reconciliation bill
• Trump reversed course within 24 hours, dropping his demand to link DHS funding to the SAVE America Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TDR) — Senate Republicans emerged from a Monday night White House meeting convinced President Trump is now willing to accept a split-track deal that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security while setting aside a fight over ICE deportation funding for a separate reconciliation bill.

The big picture: The 39-day partial shutdown has become the defining domestic pressure point of Trump’s second term — pitting immigration enforcement politics against an airport security crisis that has stranded travelers and left more than 100,000 DHS employees without full paychecks.

• The shutdown began Feb. 14 after two U.S. citizens were killed by DHS agents in Minneapolis in separate incidents in January
• TSA officers calling out sick have triggered massive airport lines nationwide, with officials warning some airports may need to close
• ICE agents were deployed to 13 airports Monday as a stopgap — a move Trump floated Saturday before pivoting to new demands

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Why it matters: The airport staffing crisis has turned an immigration enforcement standoff into an acute public disruption — giving both parties reasons to move, and reasons to stall.

• TSA workers staying home or quitting altogether are snarling airports from Atlanta to New York
• FEMA, the Coast Guard, and CISA remain unfunded — agencies with no direct role in the ICE dispute
• A deal still needs to pass the House, where GOP leaders face a tight majority and their own hard-liners

Driving the news: Senate Republicans circled a split-track framework Monday — fund most of DHS now, push ICE deportation funding and SAVE Act provisions through reconciliation later — after Trump gave the approach a tentative green light.

• The emerging deal would fund TSA, FEMA, the Coast Guard, CBP, and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations division
• ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations — the deportation arm — would be carved out and addressed in a subsequent reconciliation package
• Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins told reporters she was on “a good track” by end of week
• Sen. Katie Britt, chair of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, said flatly after the White House meeting: “We do” have a solution

What they’re saying: Both parties acknowledged movement Monday night — while leaving themselves room to walk away if legislative text doesn’t hold up.

• Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), senior Democrat on the Homeland Security subcommittee — “Let’s keep working on ICE [reforms] and let’s open everything else up. As I leave tonight, that still seems like the most likely path this week.”
• Supporting context: Democrats have long pressed to fund all of DHS except ICE enforcement — the emerging GOP framework moves closer to that structure
• Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) — “We don’t have 60 votes to [move forward with] SAVE — Sen. Thune’s made that pretty clear. So hopefully we can get DHS funded, and then we’ll deal with the SAVE America Act.”
• Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), top Senate Democratic appropriator — “I want to see the language” — a holding position, not a rejection

Yes, but: Trump’s Monday reversal came less than 24 hours after he publicly demanded Republicans refuse any deal that didn’t include the SAVE America Act — and his history of last-minute pivots has made congressional negotiators wary of counting on his support until text is signed.

• A Sunday Truth Social post from Trump explicitly told Senate Republicans to hold out for SAVE, plus transgender surgery bans, women’s sports restrictions, and paper-ballot mandates
• Senate Majority Leader Thune had to publicly contradict his own president Monday, calling the SAVE linkage “not realistic”
• The reconciliation path for ICE funding and SAVE Act provisions faces its own obstacles — strict budget rules may not accommodate key election provisions

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Between the lines: Republicans have a structural incentive to close this deal fast that has nothing to do with policy: the midterm election calendar. The longer the airport chaos runs, the harder it becomes to sustain the party’s messaging that Democrats caused and own the shutdown.

• A CBS/YouGov poll shows Republicans’ position on the shutdown is viewed as “not worth it” by a 42-23 margin — nearly double the negative rating for Democrats’ position
• With Trump simultaneously escalating the war with Iran, Republican senators privately acknowledge they cannot afford a second high-profile domestic failure running concurrently
• The reconciliation carve-out for ICE funding effectively defers — not resolves — the core dispute over deportation practices that triggered the shutdown

What’s next:

• Legislative text expected to be exchanged Monday night or Tuesday between Senate negotiators
• New DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, confirmed Monday, is expected to engage in remaining talks
• Senate passage alone isn’t enough — the deal must then navigate a tight House GOP majority
• Republicans face an “arduous few weeks” crafting a reconciliation bill combining ICE funding and SAVE Act provisions before midterms

If Congress funds most of DHS while deferring the ICE fight to reconciliation — what metrics would tell us whether that’s a real resolution or a repackaged stalemate?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from CNN Politics, The Hill, Roll Call, CBS News, Deseret News, and official statements from the House Appropriations Committee.

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