US Congress Ends 76-Day Partial Government Shutdown After Immigration Funding Standoff

US lawmakers have voted to end a 76-day partial government shutdown sparked by a standoff over President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement strategy. The House of Representatives approved a Senate-passed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), sending it to Trump for signature. The measure reopens DHS but does not provide funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or parts of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) - the two subagencies responsible for immigration enforcement. Democrats had refused to fund the two agencies, demanding they be reformed following two deadly shootings in Minnesota involving federal immigration officers. Republicans rejected the demands, instead pushing for full funding for ICE and CBP, resulting in an impasse. The two agencies would now get additional funding in another bill, that is currently being considered by the House. Immigration enforcement has meanwhile been funded with $170bn approved by Congress as part of Trump's tax cuts bill last year. The DHS, which oversees ICE and CBP, has continued to run without routine funds since 14 February, leading to major disruptions and hours-long wait times at airports across the US. But Thursday's vote clears the funding deadlock, ensuring security officers at checkpoints can now get paid in time. In March, after days of long queues at US airports, Trump signed an executive order to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents, who are considered essential workers and are required to work without pay during a federal shutdown. While that eased tensions, the Trump administration warned that emergency DHS funds were set to run out later this week. Calls for action further intensified after Saturday's shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, where prosecutors say a man attempted to assassinate Trump. The White House budget office warned that homeland security operations not involved in Trump's immigration crackdown could run out of money in May for workers employed in presidential and airport security. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had resisted bringing the Senate-passed bill to a vote for weeks, calling it inadequate and insisting that immigration enforcement be fully funded, eventually relented. "We were not going to have lines at TSA. Everybody will get their paychecks now," Johnson told reporters after the vote. "To be clear, this Democrat shutdown NEVER should have happened," he wrote. Democrats said the shutdown was extended for more than a month by Speaker Johnson for "no reason at all". "This is the same bill the Senate unanimously passed five weeks ago," said Patty Murray, the top Democrat on government funding in the Senate.