Three House Democrats broke with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Friday, handing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) a key win on a short-term plan to reopen the Department of Homeland Security amid a weeks-long shutdown fight over immigration enforcement.
Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Don Davis (D-NC), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) voted with 209 House Republicans and independent Rep. Kevin Kiley (CA) for a 60-day funding patch that would fully reopen DHS, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which Democrats have sought to restrict.
The vote shifts pressure back to the Senate, which left Washington for a two-week recess after passing a bipartisan funding deal that excludes ICE and Border Patrol.
“I believe ICE reform is necessary. I voted for this bill because I believe that it’s wrong not to pay people for their work. It’s also foolish not to pay people for their work because you think it’s going to get you unattainable goals,” Gluesenkamp Perez said in a post on X. “The president has agreed to several reforms to ICE—including mandatory body cameras, ID numbers, ending enforcement at hospitals and schools, and other reforms—but only in exchange for full 2026 funding of ICE.”
The defections came in direct opposition to Hakeem Jeffries, who has publicly endorsed the Senate deal as a victory for Democrats.
“There’s a bipartisan bill, that if brought to the floor today, can end the 42-day Trump-Republican shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security,” Jeffries said. “Republicans have concluded that they would rather continue to force TSA agents to work without pay, inconvenience millions of Americans all across the country and create chaos at airports.”
Gluesenkamp Perez framed the vote as a pragmatic step to reopen DHS while still pushing for changes to immigration enforcement.
“The president has agreed to several reforms to ICE—including mandatory body cameras, ID numbers, ending enforcement at hospitals and schools, and other reforms—but only in exchange for full 2026 funding of ICE,” she said on X. “Walking away from DHS funding will not fix anything about ICE and it screws a lot of hard-working people. Ideological purity that empowers a broken system and hurts working people is not what I was sent to Congress to be part of.”
The Senate’s deal was designed to overcome a month-long impasse with Democrats over immigration agencies’ deportation policies, with Democrats demanding strict reforms and restrictions on ICE in exchange for funding. The Senate bill does not include ICE reforms, but House Democrats were prepared to vote for the deal since funding for deportations would continue to be stalled.
“Given the staunch opposition from Senate Democrats, the clearest path to ending this harmful shutdown is for the House to adopt what the Senate just overwhelmingly approved,” a Senate GOP aide told the Washington Examiner.
Yet, the Senate deal was a non-starter for House Republicans.
HOUSE PASSES EIGHT-WEEK DHS DEAL TO PUNT SHUTDOWN BACK TO SENATE
“The Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” said Johnson. “We are going to deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens because it is a basic function of the government. The Democrats fundamentally disagree.”
Johnson opted instead to bring the 60-day DHS funding bill to the floor, setting up a renewed standoff with the Senate when lawmakers return from recess.
