House Republicans unlock reconciliation process to fund ICE and Border Patrol without Democrats

The House of Representatives approved a budget blueprint funding immigration enforcement for the rest of President Donald Trump's term over Democrats’ fierce objections on Wednesday.

Lawmakers voted 215-211 along party lines to take a critical step toward ending the record-breaking Department of Homeland Security funding lapse that began on Feb. 14.

Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., who caucuses with Republicans, voted present. House Democrats united in opposition to the immigration enforcement measure while every Republican present voted in support.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., could spare just a handful of defections with Republicans' slim majority.

REPUBLICANS CAN FUND ICE FOR AN ENTIRE DECADE WITHOUT A SINGLE DEM VOTE: SEN CRUZ

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

Trump has given 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 about getting this done," Johnson told Fox News Wednesday.

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

Republican leadership held the vote open for more than five hours to win over the numerous holdouts and six GOP lawmakers who voted "no" before flipping to "yes."

Those lawmakers included 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.

"This is why they say lawmaking is like watching sausage be made," Johnson told reporters Wednesday. "That's what this is, but we'll get it done." 

The budget resolution teeing up funding for Trump's immigration agenda is just one piece of Republicans' DHS funding strategy.

SENATE BORDER BUDGET TRIUMPHS AFTER ALL-NIGHT SESSION WHILE TRUMP-BACKED HOUSE BILL LAGS

House GOP leadership has not specified when it plans to take up a Senate-passed measure funding the rest of the department.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., agreed on a two-track approach to fund DHS by steering around Democratic opposition weeks ago. But Johnson has so far declined to put the Senate’s partial DHS bill on the House floor over concerns that it zeroes out funding for immigration enforcement. 

Johnson said earlier this week that some "modifications" to the measure may be necessary but has not gone into detail about specific changes.

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

Many rank-and-file House Republicans want ICE and the Border Patrol funded before the rest of the department, which could mean a delay for several more weeks.

"I think that there's a serious problem with the bill in that it zeroes out, ICE and CBP," Rep. Eric Burlison, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told Fox News. "It's one thing to not do the funding, but it’s a whole other thing to put zeros in the bill."

"I know that the speaker's working on making sure that we have all the assurances and even maybe the cash in hand in terms of reconciliation being wrapped up, finalized before we take the 95% of the rest of Homeland Security," House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said.

Meanwhile, the White House is warning that it will be short on funds to pay the department’s hundreds of thousands of employees beginning in May.

"If this funding is exhausted, the Administration will be unable to pay DHS personnel beginning in May, which will once again unleash havoc on air travel, leave critical law enforcement officers—including our brave Secret Service agents—and the Coast Guard without paychecks, and jeopardize national security," the White House memo published Tuesday states.

House Republicans’ approval of the Senate blueprint also effectively shuts the door on adding other GOP priorities to the budget package. Some GOP lawmakers had floated adding affordability-focused provisions, defense supplemental funding and the SAVE America Act to the bill.

GOP leadership had argued for weeks that a larger bill risked derailing the budget reconciliation process.

"We're focused on funding Homeland Security and stopping the Democrat shutdown and, in particular, using reconciliation to fund ICE and CBP because Democrats refused to fund it," Arrington said. "Everything else is not germane to this conversation."