House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to bring the lower chamber back from recess to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The partial government shutdown has spanned more than a month as lawmakers debate funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) without significant reforms to operations following the killings two U.S. citizens by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.

“The first thing that needs to happen is that the House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Johnson and Republicans need to bring us back into session so we can actually reopen the Department of Homeland Security, stop creating chaos at airports all across the country and forcing people, including what happened to TSA agents for weeks, to work without pay,” Jeffries said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“There is a bipartisan bill that has been sent over from the Senate, not once, but twice. Every single Democrat, every single Republican in the Senate supports that legislation,” he added.

Ahead of the Easter recess, senators unanimously approved a two-step path to funding DHS that would fund the bulk of the department except for ICE and Border Patrol.

The House met briefly during a pro forma session following the bill’s passage but did not attempt to advance the bill because of objections from hard-line conservatives. The lower chamber instead passed a short-term funding bill before leaving for the holiday break.

“House Democrats support that legislation, so we can reopen every other aspect of the Department of Homeland Security, including TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA, and our cybersecurity professionals, while continuing to work on the effort to get ICE under control,” Jeffries said. Sunday.

Now, GOP leaders are pushing for a budget reconciliation bill that includes funding for ICE and Border Patrol, sources told The Hill.

President Trump, in a reversal, endorsed that plan Wednesday, setting a June 1 deadline for the bill. Some Republicans, however, are opposed to funding the agencies through reconciliation, as it would require votes in support of the initial Senate-passed bill that does not fund ICE or Border Patrol.

“Let’s make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again. If that’s the vote, I’m a NO,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a former Freedom Caucus chair, wrote on the social platform X on Wednesday.

Both chambers are currently in recess and are not scheduled to return until the week of April 13.

The standstill comes at a time of increased concern about national security amid the war in Iran, and Democratic lawmakers are feeling the pressure to reach a deal to fund the department.

“The American public knows that I’m ready and willing to work with Republicans to enhance use of force standards and to ensure due process on this issue,” Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.) said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday.”

“But just making this beltway football is not making the American public safer, and the clock is ticking because we’ve got the World Cup coming, and we need the FEMA and other security agencies funded for that,” he added.

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