by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News March 27, 2026
At 2:20 a.m. on Friday morning, the Senate on a voice vote approved some funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but not for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in what critics said was a spineless cave-in to Democrats.
After the vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and his fellow Republicans skipped town for Spring Break. They failed to fund ICE and also failed to bring up the SAVE American Act which a large majority of Americans support.
A voice vote is when senators verbally say “aye” or “no,” and the presiding officer decides which side prevails without recording individual votes.
With no roll call, critics say, there was no accountability and no permanent voting record.
“Democrats flat-out refused to support full funding without gutting immigration raids and deportation operations,” The Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft noted. “Instead of fighting for the full funding Americans demanded, and that President Trump has been hammering for, Thune and the Senate GOP folded in the dead of night, when no one was watching. Classic RINO tactics.”
The early morning vote ended the partial government shutdown that was started by Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was elated when the GOP caved.
“This could have been accomplished weeks ago if Republicans hadn’t stood in the way,” Schumer boasted. “Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms.”
Republican leaders in the House were furious.
“Well, actually, I’ll start out with this: our speaker is very unhappy. I’m not happy. Our whole leadership group—what the Senate did was frankly not right,” Majority Whip Tom Emmer said.
“We are going to make sure that border is funded. This is about making sure that President Trump’s number one promise—that the border was going to be secure—is upheld. He’s accomplished, with Republican leadership, incredible things with the southern border. It has never been as tight as it is right now.
“But we are not going to allow these radical, anarchist, Marxist, socialist Democrats to literally stop or create an open-border situation again like we experienced under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And we are going to make sure that we continue to deport criminal illegal aliens. This is what Americans want.”
Emmer also pointed out that Thune and the Senate GOP “instead of doing it in the light of day when all of America can watch what’s going on, they made this procedural move early in the morning. By the way, it sets dangerous precedents going forward. If you can take appropriations bills and start removing pieces that you don’t like, this will never end. So we’re working through it in the House. We will have a solution, and the speaker will announce it—hopefully within the next hour or so.”
Not only did Senate Republicans leave town without funding ICE, they also bailed on holding a vote on the SAVE America Act.
Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine torched Thune and his team in a post to X:
Looks like Leader John Thune is on his way out of town with his private escort, as the SAVE America Act gets left behind.
This is very disappointing.
I am willing to stay in Washington as long as it takes to get the job done. pic.twitter.com/NLg4xEJRdg
— Congressman Randy Fine (@RepFine) March 27, 2026
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Spineless: Thune and Senate GOP cave to Dems in 2 a.m. vote on partial DHS funding, then split town for Spring Break added by Editor Two on
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