The shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security has dragged on, and President Trump has had enough.

The Senate finally passed a compromise bill last week, which should have been the end of it. However, House Republicans were having none of it, and again pushed to have DHS fully funded – this time via a continuing resolution. This resulted in more delay, and President Trump was over it. So he pushed Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune into figuring out how to get DHS open, which finally came about on Wednesday.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Wednesday announced a deal that, if accepted by their members, would end the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The two GOP leaders said they will pursue a two-track plan endorsed earlier in the day by President Trump to end the shutdown by funding immigration and border enforcement through a GOP-only reconciliation bill — making a stark reversal for the House GOP from just a week ago.

Trump initially stayed out of the GOP squabble, but on Wednesday, he publicly endorsed funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through the special budget reconciliation process that allows Republicans to fund the agencies without needing Democratic support. Trump set a June 1 deadline for Congress to send him the bill.

The joint statement from Johnson and Thune noted that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), chair of the Senate Budget Committee, has already started the process of “developing a budget resolution that will ensure border security and immigration enforcement will be funded through the balance of the Trump Administration.”

ICE and CBP personnel are currently being paid during the shutdown through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that was passed last year through the same reconciliation process, Trump noted in his post.

Trump said that funding will continue to be used to “ensure that ICE and Border Patrol Agents are paid ON TIME, and IN FULL, as we have been doing for them throughout the Democrat Shutdown.”

The problem, though, is that now Congress is on Easter break, and won’t be back in session until Monday. Never get in between a Representative and their vacation time, not even if you are a DHS employee who has missed weeks of paychecks. But God forbid you ask Congress to forfeit their paychecks during a shutdown!

Well, President Trump decided to issue a memo and direct the new DHS Secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to pay ALL the employees, and go talk to Russ Vought in order to figure out where the money will come from.

Nearly 7 weeks have elapsed since Democrats shut down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prevent the brave men and women who work for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection from performing their duties to secure our country’s borders and enforce our immigration laws. More than 35,000 employees, including Coast Guard civilians, Federal Emergency Management Agency employees helping to prepare the Nation for disaster response, and cybersecurity professionals at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have gone without a paycheck for nearly 2 months because of congressional Democrats. As a result, thousands of DHS employees who are performing their critical public safety responsibilities are struggling to make ends meet and provide for their families. This callous treatment of DHS employees must end in order to ensure that America is not susceptible to security threats and maintains readiness to respond to emergencies.

As President of the United States, I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security. Accordingly, I hereby direct the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to the functions of DHS to provide each and every employee of DHS with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown, consistent with applicable law, including 31 U.S.C. 1301(a).

Now, it is all but certain that some money can be either appropriated or found to issue paychecks for all DHS employees who have gone without one. After all, TSA employees were able to be paid, so there has to be something out there that can be used. Secretary Mullin, for his part, was thrilled that President Trump had issued this directive.

For 49 days, the Democrats have held our DHS employees hostage with their political theatre. It has to stop.

Grateful for the leadership of @POTUS and the great men and women of @DHSgov working every day to keep Americans safe.

We’re continuing to fight for you. pic.twitter.com/MhXG9GZ8iU

— Secretary Markwayne Mullin (@SecMullinDHS) April 3, 2026

Trump argued the circumstances of the shutdown now “constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security,” necessitating Friday’s order.

Mullin, who just completed his second week as DHS chief, said he was “grateful for the leadership” of Trump and accused Democratic lawmakers of holding “every employee here at DHS hostage” for “political theater,” in a video posted on X.

“You’re literally putting the homeland at risk,” the DHS secretary fumed on Day 49 of the shutdown. “You’re putting my yard, your yard, your loved ones’ yard at risk.”

And yes, it is Democrats who have held up the process. Who says so? Chuck Schumer.

🚨BREAKING

Chuck Schumer ADMITS Democrats shut down DHS for nothing. 

SCHUMER: “We held it up because we wanted, as I mentioned before, to reform ICE and CBP.” pic.twitter.com/axpSPGaNFe

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 2, 2026

The TSA has gotten a little relief, and having ICE at the airports has been much smoother than I think nearly anyone anticipated, save bitter leftist posers who want to go viral trying to bait ICE agents. (Wouldn’t it be hilarious if public opinion on ICE changes because the public sees them consistently at airports?) However, it’s well past time for Congress to hammer out a funding bill that gets passed through and signed, and then the rest of the funding can get dealt with via reconciliation.

Featured image: President Donald Trump on March 5, 2026, official White House photo by Daniel Torok on the White House Flickr account, cropped, public domain