Cruz proposes splitting ICE from Homeland Security funding bill to end airport chaos

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a leading Senate conservative, is proposing to colleagues the idea of splitting off Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from the rest of funding for the Department of Homeland Security to end growing chaos at airports around the country.

The proposal appeared to be gaining momentum within the Senate Republican conference on Saturday as GOP lawmakers grow increasingly pessimistic about reaching a deal with Democrats to reform federal immigration enforcement operations.

“What I’ve suggested is that the Democrats have gotten so extreme and unreasonable that I don’t know that they will ever be willing to fund Department of Homeland Security,” Cruz told The Hill Saturday.

“If that’s where the Democrats are, I’ve suggested let’s fund ICE and CBP through reconciliation. That Republicans can do with just 50 votes, we can do that relatively quickly and the Democrat lunacy on open borders can be put to an end,” he added. “I’m interested in any strategy to get the government open, to pay the Department of Homeland Security.”

He argued that there have been four domestic attacks by radical Islamic terrorists in recent weeks and “the agency charged with preventing terror attacks has been defunded” because of the shutdown.

“And millions of Americans right now are facing two-, three-, four-hour waits at airports. They’re missing their planes for spring break because the Democrats refuse to pay TSA,” he said.

“TSA agents have now missed two paychecks in a row. Over 300 of them have resigned. They had to go get another job because they have to pay their rent and feed their kids,” he said.

Security-line wait times at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport and Hobby Airport have stretched to more than three hours amid a high volume of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers calling in sick during the partial government shutdown.

Cruz’s support for splitting off ICE and CBP — which Democrats have blocked to demand sweeping reforms to federal immigration enforcement operations — is a significant development given his influence in the Senate GOP conference and popularity within the party more broadly.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Cruz approached him about the idea to split up Homeland Security funding and he’s open to it.

“Anything that we have to do, even incrementally, to get some of this impasse done, I’d be open to,” he said. “What I do think is until we get a resolution, we shouldn’t leave” for the recess.

“We all know that ICE is effectively funded through the Big Beautiful Bill,” he added.

Both Republican and Democratic sources say that it could provide the basis for a deal to end the 36-day shutdown of the Homeland Security Department.

Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the Democratic vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked for unanimous consent on March 11 to fund TSA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies separately from ICE and CBP.

Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee, objected at the time, arguing that Democrats were playing “political games.”

But since then, absentee rates among TSA workers have increased and wait times at airports have become worse.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, suggested in an interview on CSPAN’s “Ceasefire” that Republicans move an appropriations bill that funds all of the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE and then fund immigration enforcement operations though the budget reconciliation process, which would allow Republicans to circumvent a Democratic filibuster.

“Let’s open up everything but ICE, OK? Let’s open it up … but I can tell you what’s going to happen next. The Republicans are going to put a reconciliation bill on the floor that requires Republican votes to fund ICE, and the Democrats don’t have the vote to stop us,” Kennedy said on the program.

Republicans already allocated $172 billion for immigration enforcement operations through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Trump signed into law, providing extra funding for ICE over four years.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) didn’t rule out the proposal to split ICE and CBP funding from the rest of the Homeland Security Appropriations bill but he would prefer to get a deal with Democrats to fund the entire department.

“There are a lot of ideas swirling around right now but the best way would be for us to come together” on a deal to fund the entire department, he said Saturday.

White House border czar was scheduled to meet with Senate Democratic and Republican negotiators at the Capitol Saturday afternoon to continue talks on a broader Homeland Security funding agreement.

GOP lawmakers on Saturday said those talks are beginning to make more progress.

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