Senate Republicans on Tuesday agreed to move forward on a blueprint for a party-line budget resolution to fund the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement functions.

In a 52–46 vote, the Senate approved moving forward the measure put forward by Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

The measure starts the budget reconciliation process, ordering House and Senate committees to write legislation that would provide up to $70 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol—agencies at the center of a funding impasse amid a record-long shutdown.

The Senate is expected to move to final approval of the budget blueprint this week.

Under the reconciliation process, which is governed by strict rules, lawmakers can bypass the normal filibuster requirements and pass party-line legislation in the upper chamber.

The now 67-day shutdown started in mid-February, when Democrats vowed to deny funding to the department until changes were made to ICE and CBP policy. They tied these demands to the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

If funding for the agencies is approved through the reconciliation process, it would leave only the generally non-controversial DHS funding items: the Transportation and Security Administration, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, and others.

Such a move would likely make it politically costly for Democrats to continue opposing funding for the agency.

A separate bill to fund all of DHS, except immigration enforcement, has passed the Senate and is now pending in the House.

Budget Reconciliation

Because reconciliation is excepted from filibuster rules, it is an appealing tool for both parties—it was used by Democrats to pass the Inflation Reduction Act of 2021 and by Republicans to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025—but it is subject to significant restrictions.

Namely, it must include only federal budget items, with no items that have a “merely incidental” effect on revenue or spending.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) indicated that Republicans had been forced to use the process to end the shutdown.

“It’s not my preference, but it is reality,” Thune said.

He has suggested that he hopes to keep the bill narrowly focused on budget items, which would best ensure it passes scrutiny by the Senate parliamentarian for aligning with Senate rules on the reconciliation process.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y. ) called the budget workaround a “partisan sideshow.”

He said that the Republican resolution would give money to immigration enforcement “without putting any restraints on these rogue agencies’ rampant violence in our streets.”