Washington.- U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan law approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday to fund a large part of the Department of Homeland Security, ending a partial shutdown that lasted for more than 10 weeks, although the agreement leaves out the immigration agencies, whose budget will be negotiated separately.
The signing was confirmed and disseminated by the White House, which highlighted that the agreement guarantees the continuity of key operations of the Department of Homeland Security, including airport security, the protection of senior officials, and emergency response.
The text was previously approved by Congress with the support of Democrats and Republicans, after weeks of negotiations marked by disagreements over the financing of immigration agencies, which were excluded from the package and will be addressed in separate legislation in the coming weeks.
Negotiations on migration
The partial closure has been active since February 14 due to the Democrats’ boycott when approving budgets in protest of the death of two citizens in January at the hands of immigration agencies – dependent on this Department – within the framework of the large raids approved by the Trump government.
Thus, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are excluded from the funding measure approved today.
The approved text does not include resources for the application of immigration laws, which represents a significant concession to the Democrats and a retreat by the Republican leadership headed by the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.
However, the negotiation of reforms to immigration laws remains up in the air, and in particular, to the attributes and limits of action of the agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE), amid a strong political struggle between Democrats, who demand greater controls over the use of force, the identification of agents and detentions, and Republicans, who seek to expand the resources and operational capabilities of these agencies in future legislation.
