Senate Republicans appear to be losing their appetite for fighting ahead of a spring recess as a proposal to fund ICE found one lawmaker reminding, “We don’t need Democrats …”
(Video Credit: Fox News)
Few things appear to get Congress to act quite so well as interfering with time off and the ongoing battles over the SAVE America Act and funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appeared to run the risk of doing just that. Now, after more than five weeks of Democrats leading another shutdown, Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy (R) took to Fox News to sell a means to cave to the left’s wishes while assuring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would still get funded.
Expressing how he’d shared his idea with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and other congressional colleagues, Kennedy joined Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America” where he told host Trey Gowdy, “I would accept the Democrats’ offer to open up everything except ICE at DHS. And then the very next day, I would pass a reconciliation bill which crafts a budget for ICE.”
“We can do it without any Democratic votes. Certainly, the Democrats are welcome to join us. We can do it with all Republican votes,” he went on. “That’s how we passed the One Big, Beautiful Bill. We don’t need Democrats to do anything with respect to ICE.”
After slamming numerous radical leftist ideas like gender ideology and defunding the police, as the “Karen-wing” of the Democrats were “calling the shots,” Kennedy asserted, “What we’re doing now is a Great Dane-sized whiz down the leg of every employee at TSA and everybody else at DHS who should be paid.”
“And we’re giving a bunch of pretty speeches on the floor, when the truth is, and everybody knows it, the Democrats are not going to vote for anything, anything, that has to do with ICE, because their party tells them they have to abolish it, and that’s where we are. We can be open in seven days,” he argued as Congress was scheduled to take a two-week recess beginning Friday.
While the senator made clear he was only speaking for himself, Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman posted Monday that Thune spoke with President Donald Trump about the possibility of funding DHS sans ICE, with the intent to fund it via a subsequent reconciliation package, and that “TRUMP rejected the offer. Said he wants [Republicans] fighting Dems over DHS funding, SAVE Act.”
🚨NEWS: SENATE MAJORITY LEADER JOHN THUNE spoke to President DONALD TRUMP Sunday and offered to fund DHS — without ICE.
THUNE said he’d fund ICE in a reconciliation package.
TRUMP rejected the offer. Said he wants Rs fighting Dems over DHS funding, SAVE Act.
Some Senate Rs…
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) March 23, 2026
To his credit, Trump had called for the Senate to remain in Washington, D.C. for Easter, if that’s what it takes, in a Sunday Truth Social post.
“I don’t think we should make any deal with the Crazy, Country Destroying, Radical Left Democrats unless, and until, they Vote with Republicans to pass ‘THE SAVE AMERICA ACT.’ It is far more important than anything else we are doing in the Senate, and that includes giving these same terrible people, the Dems (who are to blame for this mess!), a Five Billion Dollar cut in ICE funding, a deal which, even when disguised as something else, is unacceptable to me and the American people — UNLESS it includes their approval of Voter I.D., (with picture!), Citizenship to Vote, No Mail-In Voting (with exceptions), All Paper Ballots, No Men In Women’s Sports, and No Transgender MUTILIZATION [sic] of our precious children,” wrote the president.
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 23, 2026
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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