Conservatives seethe after Johnson backs Senate plan he previously called ‘a joke’

Hard-line conservatives are seething after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) reversed course to back a Senate plan that detaches funding for immigration enforcement from a broader package to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Although Johnson had previously called the Senate proposal “a joke,” he changed his tune Wednesday after President Trump endorsed the strategy. The plan seeks to fund most of DHS quickly with Democratic support, while pushing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol to later in the year on a separate track that doesn’t require Democratic votes.

The conservatives are irate, saying the two-step strategy would create a national security threat by denying more money for the very agencies that protect the border and seek to deport criminals living in the country illegally. They’re warning that they’ll oppose the legislation if it hits the floor in its current form.

“Funding for ICE and CBP must never be separated from DHS funding,” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, wrote on the social........

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