Senate Republicans have taken their first formal step toward funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the budget reconciliation process, a maneuver that bypasses the filibuster and cuts Democrats out of the equation entirely. The move comes as the Department of Homeland Security warns it can only cover employee pay through the first payroll cycle in May, a deadline that has concentrated Republican minds and sharpened the political fight over border enforcement.
The clash reached a new intensity Thursday when DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin went on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" and tore into Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for remarks dismissing the agencies responsible for immigration enforcement. Mullin's broadside followed Schumer's comments on the Senate floor in which the New York Democrat described ICE and Border Patrol as groups "that nobody respects in this country."
That line landed like a match on dry brush.
Mullin, a former U.S. senator from Oklahoma who now leads the sprawling DHS apparatus, did not mince words. Speaking to Fox News' Bill Melugin, he said Schumer's comments were personally offensive and politically dishonest:
"It takes a lot to get me upset, but, Chuck Schumer, no one respects you: The definition of a lying scumbag politician. That is you."
He continued, challenging Schumer to level with the public about his actual position on immigration enforcement:
"You would be the definition if you Googled you right now. I mean, why don't you just come out and be honest with the American people? He wants to have open borders."
The DHS secretary's language was unusually blunt, even by the standards of today's political discourse. But Mullin framed his anger as a defense of the men and women who patrol the border and carry out deportation orders, people he said Schumer had insulted while they were "out there protecting you."
Schumer's full remark, as reported by Breitbart, came during a Senate floor speech opposing the scale of new enforcement funding: "Adding $140 billion to an agency that nobody, 2 groups, Border Patrol and ICE, that nobody respects in this country." The comment drew immediate fire from Republicans and immigration hawks who saw it as an open attack on federal law enforcement.
Schumer's standing within his own party has been deteriorating for months. Radicals inside the Democratic caucus have been making their move against his leadership, and moments like this help explain why.
Behind the rhetoric sits a concrete fiscal problem. Mullin told Fox News that DHS has been operating under what he called "shutdown conditions" for 69 days. The department spends roughly $1.7 billion every two weeks to cover payroll for its 270,000 employees, a workforce that includes Border Patrol agents, ICE officers, TSA screeners, Coast Guard personnel, and the Secret Service.
Mullin said the department can only cover pay through the first payroll in May. After that, the math stops working.
"We're at critical mass."
That warning adds urgency to the Senate GOP's decision to pursue reconciliation as the vehicle for ICE and Border Patrol funding. Reconciliation allows the majority party to pass certain budget-related legislation with a simple majority, 51 votes, rather than the 60 needed to break a filibuster. It is the same tool Democrats used to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 and the American Rescue Plan in 2021.
Now Republicans are wielding it to fund the agencies Democrats have tried to starve. The Washington Examiner reported that the Senate has already passed a budget resolution and that President Trump has set a June 1 deadline for final funding legislation. The DHS funding lapse has persisted since February 14, making the reconciliation push both a policy priority and a political statement.
The fact that Democratic Senate candidates have been distancing themselves from Schumer suggests that even members of his own conference understand how badly the minority leader has misread the politics of border enforcement.
Mullin made a pointed argument about why Democrats continue to block DHS funding despite public opinion running against them. He cited polling showing broad support for deportation and border enforcement:
"The American people overwhelmingly supports deportation, deporting these illegal immigrants and enforcing our nation laws and closing our border."
He put a number on it, claiming the issue polls at around 80 percent support among the American public. Whether that figure holds up to scrutiny across every survey is debatable, but the broader trend is not in dispute: immigration enforcement consistently ranks among the top concerns for voters, and support for deportation of illegal immigrants has climbed in poll after poll over the past two years.
Mullin argued that Democrats know this but are trapped by their own base:
"Even the polling is like an 80% issue with the American people, but the Democrats are so afraid of their primary base that they are willing to hold the homeland hostage."
That framing, Democrats choosing progressive primary voters over national security, is one Republicans have used effectively since the border crisis accelerated. Mullin's version of it carries extra weight because he is no longer a senator scoring points on cable news. He runs the department whose employees may not get paid next month.
Schumer's political weakness has been well documented in recent months, and his decision to publicly disparage the very agencies at the center of a funding fight suggests a leader disconnected from the political terrain.
The Senate GOP's reconciliation strategy carries risks of its own. The process is governed by the Byrd Rule, which limits what can be included to provisions with a direct budgetary impact. Extraneous policy riders can be challenged and stripped out. Republicans will need to keep their conference unified, no easy task when the margin is thin and individual senators have their own priorities.
But the political logic is straightforward. Democrats have refused to fund DHS at the levels the administration says are necessary. The partial funding lapse has dragged on for more than two months. And the minority leader just told the country that the agencies enforcing immigration law are ones "that nobody respects."
Republicans now have a procedural path, a deadline, and a Democratic leader who handed them the best possible sound bite. President Trump has already urged the GOP to press its procedural advantages, predicting Schumer will fold under sustained pressure.
Mullin accused Schumer and his caucus of engaging in "political theater" while DHS employees face the prospect of missed paychecks. He called Schumer's characterization of ICE and Border Patrol flatly dishonest:
"That's absolutely false. That's a lie."
Whether Democrats can sustain their opposition as the May payroll deadline approaches will test their resolve, and their political judgment. Blocking funding for 270,000 federal employees while your leader publicly mocks the agencies they work for is a posture that may play well in a Brooklyn fundraiser. It plays differently in a swing-state general election.
The intra-party revolt against Schumer's leadership has been building for weeks. Episodes like this accelerate it.
The Senate's budget resolution sets the framework. The reconciliation bill itself still needs to be drafted, debated, and passed, all before Trump's June 1 target. The House will have its own version to negotiate. Conference committees, amendments, and procedural delays could push the timeline past the point where DHS can keep the lights on.
Mullin's public warning about the first-payroll-in-May deadline was almost certainly intended to create political pressure on wavering senators from both parties. If Border Patrol agents and ICE officers miss a paycheck because Congress failed to act, the political fallout will not land evenly. Republicans have positioned themselves as the party trying to fund these agencies. Democrats, led by a man who just said nobody respects them, will own the delay.
When you tell 270,000 federal employees that nobody respects them and then block the bill that pays them, don't be surprised when the country draws its own conclusions about who's really holding the homeland hostage.
