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The Senate has taken the first steps toward reopening the Department of Homeland Security after passing a budget resolution that seeks to fund ICE and Border Patrol with $70 billion over the next three years.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: If you’re unaware, DHS has been partially shut down since February 14, making it the longest shutdown in US history. It kicked off when Senate Democrats refused to sign off on the House’s funding bill over the ICE and Border Patrol money baked into it. Their opposition dates back to January, when immigration agents in Minneapolis shot and killed two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, prompting Democrats to start pushing for guardrails on how those two agencies operate. Their asks included judge-signed warrants anytime agents wanted to step inside a private home, and a rule keeping officers from covering their faces while on duty. Republicans, on the other hand, have refused to attach any conditions to the funding, and weeks of negotiations collapsed without a deal. Meanwhile, federal workers at FEMA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and CISA have missed more than two months of paychecks.

ICE ERO arrested more than 3,100 convicted criminal aliens, fugitives and immigration violators in a six-day nationwide enforcement action. In this photo an ICE agent frisks a suspect.

What’s going on now: The Senate voted 50-48 early Thursday morning to advance the budget resolution, which now heads to the House. Once the House clears a matching version and any gaps between the two get smoothed out, Republicans can use reconciliation rules to muscle the actual spending bill through with 51 votes instead of the 60 a filibuster forces.

The funding would cover ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s term in January 2029. Two Republicans (Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski) voted against the resolution. The vote came after a six-hour overnight vote-a-rama in which Democrats forced 17 amendment votes on affordability issues, including healthcare costs, food assistance, childcare, and gas prices (all of which failed).

Following the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “What kind of bubble are they living in? Instead of taking that money, which should have gone to lowering people’s costs, they’re giving it to an agency that everyone knows needs reform.”

This all comes as DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin warned this week that his department has only one payroll left and will run out of money to pay the rest of the department’s employees next month.

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