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By Dan Gooding
Associate News Editor
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President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base appeared frustrated Friday morning after the Senate passed a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that left out Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The deal, reached in the early hours on Friday, funds the rest of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). It now heads to the House for approval.
Some Republican voters and lawmakers were not happy with the compromise, with disappointment aimed in part at Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota.
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“John Thune is a massive RINO sellout and a total traitor to the America First movement. He completely caved when we need border enforcement the most,” Ryan Fournier, founder of Students for Trump, posted on X. “Now it goes to the House. House Republicans better step up, grow a spine, and KILL this disastrous bill! We are watching!”
Why It Matters
The MAGA and America First movements led by Trump have advocated for stricter immigration policies, which have included bolstering the Border Patrol and ICE.
Some Republicans have distanced themselves from this part of the party over the past year, and the president has appeared to make moves that have gone against these ideals, including the war in Iran. Congress has been divided, however, over DHS and its funding, with a weeks-long stalemate between Democrats and Republicans over giving ICE more money.
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DHS Funding Deal: What Is MAGA Saying?
In the hours after the deal was struck between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, MAGA supporters took to social media to criticize GOP senators for not holding the line on keeping ICE funding in the bill.
The agreement follows an impasse that stretched for weeks. Democrats had refused to vote for a spending bill without significant reforms to ICE enforcement practices following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota in January.
While Thune was quoted by Politico on Friday as having described the outcome as “unfortunate," some voters had no sympathy for him.
“Thune is a traitor to this country. We’ve had enough! The house should throw this in the trash. They allowed Democrats to hold ICE funding for ransom,” X account America First Annie posted. “Any Senator that refuses to do anything about Thune should get voted out.”
Another prominent MAGA voice on X, Gunther Eagleman, said Thune had “sold out” and “bent the knee to Chuck Schumer while Americans were sleeping.”
Others placed the blame on Democrats, with conservative commentator and independent reporter Nick Sortor posting on X: “DO NOT let Dems get away with that” when referring to the lack of additional funding for ICE.
The agency responsible for immigration enforcement and deportations has remained funded through this shutdown, relying on the $140 billion budgeted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer. Democrats wanted to put conditions on further funding that would have meant stricter oversight of ICE agents.
“And just like that, while Americans were asleep, Senate Republicans were wide awake tossing the radical Democrats a political lifeline to end the government shutdown without funding ICE and our brave Border Patrol,” Tennessee Republican Representative John Rose said on X. “Now they’re off to take their recess — getting off the hook from having to vote on the SAVE America Act and fully funding ICE.”
Rose said he was glad TSA agents would now be paid, after several weeks, but added that Democrats were to blame.
“They put illegal aliens before Americans, and some Senate Republicans just ran cover for them,” he posted.
Democratic Washington Senator Patty Murray posted shortly after the vote, giving a different perspective–that Republicans had relented and were not holding TSA agents “hostage” anymore.
“No blank check for ICE & Border Patrol. We need real reforms & accountability,” she said. “I'll keep fighting for exactly that.”
What Happens Next
The House is set to vote on the bill on Friday.
President Trump also signed an executive order to get TSA agents paid in an effort to cut airport security wait times.
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