White House aides briefed the president on the plan Sunday, according to two sources familiar with the matter, as Democrats demand new guardrails on immigration enforcement in exchange for DHS funding. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) then spoke with Trump by phone but was rebuffed.
The proposal is the latest sign that Senate Republicans are increasingly desperate to end the monthlong partial government shutdown, which has fueled long wait lines at airports across the country. Under the plan, Transportation Security Administration employees who have been calling out sick would be paid.
But Trump has begun hardening his opposition to a deal and, on Sunday, made a new demand of Democrats, tying DHS funding to the passage of his signature election bill, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
He reiterated that demand in a Monday speech in Memphis, Tennessee, telling Senate Republicans not to go home for their Easter recess until the bill, currently under debate in the Senate, reaches his desk.
“You don’t have to take a fast vote. Don’t worry about Easter going home. In fact, make this one for Jesus,” Trump said.
The legislation, which requires photo ID at the polls and proof of citizenship when registering to vote, is universally opposed by Senate Democrats and cannot pass due to the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster. Thune later dismissed the prospect of joining the two priorities while speaking to reporters at the Capitol on Monday.
Since the partial shutdown began in mid-February, Senate Republicans have resisted attempts to reopen DHS piecemeal, instead looking to the White House to negotiate a compromise on ICE funding.
Those talks gained momentum over the last week, with border czar Tom Homan making repeated trips to Capitol Hill to speak with a group of Senate Republicans and Democrats. On the table was a new oversight of detention facilities, money for body cameras, and other concessions made after federal immigration agents fatally shot two protesters in Minneapolis.
But a growing number of Senate Republicans have begun advocating that leadership simply fund DHS without ICE money, as Democrats have been urging them to do.
Democrats say that scenario would allow TSA workers to be paid while a final deal is hammered out on ICE. But Republicans also believe the ICE funding can be allocated using a party-line budget process known as reconciliation, eliminating the need for a bipartisan compromise.
Republicans also note that ICE is essentially funded due to money included in the tax bill Trump signed last year.
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In the absence of a deal, Trump has dispatched ICE agents to airports to assist the TSA with security and has floated sending National Guard troops as well.
Democrats used Trump’s rejection of the possible off-ramp on Monday to argue that the White House was to blame for the impasse.
