The Senate has partially funded the Department of Homeland Security following a 42-day stalemate — but there’s a catch.

More than six weeks after DHS was first shut down in mid-February, the Senate agreed in the early morning hours on Friday to fund key agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and most notably, the Transportation Security Administration. Although the funding agreement was long overdue, the Senate continues to withhold funds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

‘Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis.’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) called the supplemental funding “unfortunate,” saying it is only prolonging policy disagreements Democrats continue to move their goal posts on.

“The Dems wanted reforms,” Thune said. “We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms, but, you know, we’re going to have to fight some of those battles another day.”

The Senate greenlit this funding bill by a voice vote around 2:00 a.m. ET and is now headed into a two-week-long recess. The spending package is now on its way to the House.

RELATED: Heroic ICE agent miraculously saves unresponsive child in TSA line

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

This funding was put through just hours after President Donald Trump ordered his new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to “immediately pay our TSA Agents.”

“Because the Democrats have recklessly created a true National Crisis, I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do!” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Thursday evening. “Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports.”

RELATED: Trump adds new condition to ICE airport plan in DHS shutdown fight

Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!” Trump added. “I want to thank our hardworking TSA Agents and also, ICE, for the incredible help they have given us at the Airports. I will not allow the Radical Left Democrats to hold our Country hostage any longer.”

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Fourteen months into Trump’s second term, the verdict is in. No mass deportations. No major immigration reform. And if Democrats return to power, they will rip the doors off the hinges again.

Trump did slow the flow and put a dent in some outdated visa programs. But the results remain too small relative to the scale of what came before him and what may come after him.

One day, red states will need to enact these deterrents. The only question is timing.

That leaves one durable partial solution: Use red-state supermajorities to deter illegal aliens from settling in those states when the next wave comes. States may lack the power to deport illegal aliens outright, but they can make daily life harder. They can deny jobs and benefits, impose criminal penalties, and create a lasting deterrent that survives any one presidency.

Ron DeSantis appears to understand this in Florida. Almost no other Republican governor does.

Idaho offers the clearest example of the problem. On paper, it looks like the kind of state where serious immigration enforcement should be easy. Republicans hold 61-9 and 29-6 majorities in the House and Senate. Conservatives gained ground in the House thanks to the Freedom Caucus. Yet when the time came to pass meaningful reforms, the GOP establishment folded.

The House moved several bills. The Senate is quietly killing them. Gov. Brad Little (R) remains publicly silent, apparently hoping the issue dies in committee while he cruises to re-election under Trump’s preemptive endorsement and keeps his donor class happy.

The bills now stalled in Idaho expose the fraud.

H704 would mandate E-Verify for all public and private employers and give the state attorney general real enforcement power. It passed the House 43-26 despite opposition from 17 Republicans. It now sits dead in the Senate State Affairs Committee under Chairman Jim Guthrie and Senate President Pro Tempore Kelly Anthon.

H700 would make it a misdemeanor knowingly to hire illegal aliens without using E-Verify. That bill is also dead in the Senate, and 22 House Republicans opposed it.

H659 would require all counties and cities to cooperate with ICE through 287(g) agreements. In a state with barely any elected Democrats, one might assume mandatory ICE cooperation would be the easiest of calls. Instead, the bill passed the House 41-27, with 18 lukewarm Republicans joining Democrats in opposition, and now sits dead in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

H660 would require police to inquire about immigration status after a lawful arrest and would mandate a twice-yearly report on crimes committed by illegal aliens. By definition, this involves people already suspected of some other offense. Even so, the bill passed only 40-30 and is now being blocked in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

RELATED: The TSA showdown reveals a brutal truth about our politics

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H764 would create a state analogue to the federal statute that penalizes anyone who knowingly or recklessly conceals, harbors, transports, or materially assists illegal aliens. It includes misdemeanor and felony penalties, license revocations, and forfeiture provisions. In other words, it would build precisely the kind of standing deterrent red states will need when Democrats reopen the border. It has not even advanced out of committee.

S1318 would audit refugee-resettlement contractors in Idaho, including the number of refugees served, their demographic and language data, participation in language programs, housing use, geographic distribution, and relevant public-health statistics. It would also require disclosure if those entities aided illegal aliens. It remains blocked in the Senate State Affairs Committee.

H592 would require the state to track how many illegal aliens receive hospital services and how much that costs taxpayers. It would not deny care. It would merely quantify the burden. A similar law in Florida led to a drop in illegal-alien use of the health care system. Idaho’s bill has not moved.

H656 would do the same basic thing in schools by auditing the number of illegal aliens enrolled. It has gone nowhere.

How does this happen in a state so red? The answer is simple: Many Republican officials remain functionally progressive on immigration.

Little is deeply unpopular with the grassroots, but he neutralized the threat of a primary by securing Trump’s endorsement. Everyone knows he opposes these bills. He simply does not want to say so out loud. Better to let them die quietly in committee than risk angering the base or the business interests that still demand cheap labor.

Call it political Murphy’s law. DeSantis is term-limited in Florida. Brad Little gets a third term.

RELATED: Memo to Trump: Stop negotiating and ramp up deportations

DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images

Even Florida has not gone far enough. It already has E-Verify, but lawmakers failed to remove the 25-employee exception. Similar attempts to strengthen E-Verify have failed in West Virginia, Indiana, Oklahoma, and South Dakota, all solidly red states.

A few bright spots remain.

Tennessee may pass some worthwhile bills, though lawmakers gutted legislation to charge illegal aliens tuition. Arizona’s legislature is close to passing SB 1421, which would bar illegal aliens from opening bank accounts, cashing checks, or obtaining loans by prohibiting financial institutions from accepting foreign ID cards or ITINs as sole identification. It would make life in the United States much harder without legal status. The bill passed the Senate and awaits a House vote. Unfortunately, Arizona has a Democrat governor who will likely veto it.

That only raises the harder question: Why is this not already law in the 22 Republican trifecta states?

The same problem appears in commercial trucking. Amid the rash of crashes involving illegal-alien drivers, very few states have acted seriously. Oklahoma alone passed a law requiring proof of citizenship to reciprocate out-of-state commercial driver’s licenses. Florida appears to be the one state seriously enforcing the English-language requirement and checking for illegal aliens at truck stops.

Iowa let a bill die in committee that would have required driver’s license exams to be administered only in English. Indiana passed an English-only testing bill, but still failed to address out-of-state CDLs, even after two illegal aliens killed Indiana residents in separate incidents in less than two weeks in February.

One day, red states will need to enact these deterrents. The only question is timing. Will Republicans build them now, during the lull, or will they wait until hundreds of thousands of new invaders flood back in under a future President Gavin Newsom?

That choice will tell us whether Republicans ever meant a word they said about immigration.

​Red states, Immigration, Idaho, Ron desantis, Illegal immigration, Democrats, 2028, Opinion & analysis, Brad little, Rinos, Open borders, E-verify, Donald trump, Trifecta, Law and order, Sovereignty, Immigration and customs enforcement 

Pennsylvania State Police said troopers were called to a home Tuesday night near the intersection of 18th Street and Water Street in Brownsville Borough in Fayette County for a “reported disturbance,” KDKA-TV reported. Brownsville is about an hour south of Pittsburgh.

Investigators said a woman in the home heard someone beating on her door, after which a male allegedly broke a window to get inside — and then entered the woman’s bedroom, KDKA said. A criminal complaint said the male used a brick to break the window; it all happened around 11:30 p.m.

‘She got beat up a little bit, but she shot the guy.’

When the male wouldn’t leave and continued moving toward the woman, investigators said she shot him in the leg, the station noted.

The woman shot the male once more in the side of the head when he continued moving toward her, officials told KDKA.

A struggle between the male and the woman ensued after she shot him, investigators told the station, adding that she was able to escape the home as troopers arrived.

RELATED: Stalker shows up at woman’s workplace, begins punching her, cops say. But victim has a gun — and she uses it.

State police told KDKA the castle doctrine — which allows people to use deadly force to protect themselves inside their homes — applies in this case.

Troopers who responded to the home found a man who had been shot multiple times, state police added to the station.

The man was flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh hospital for emergency surgery, state police told KDKA, which added that his condition was not immediately released.

Ronald Rosiek, 69, was charged with multiple felonies related to the incident, including aggravated assault, criminal trespassing, and burglary, the station said, citing court records.

The victim’s brother arrived at the home Tuesday and feared something bad may have happened to his sibling, but he told KDKA that police put his fears to rest.

“I thought it was her,” the brother recalled to the station. “[The] officer said, ‘No, she took care of business. She got beat up a little bit, but she shot the guy.'”

Those with information about the incident are asked to contact troopers in the Belle Vernon barracks at 724-929-6262.

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Seasonal allergies are nothing to sneeze at, especially if you live in a hot zone. Between a runny nose, congestion, watery eyes, and everything else that comes with spring, bothersome symptoms can make it harder to focus and downright ruin your day. Stay on top of the allergy forecast with these essential apps for allergy season.

The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel isn’t just a great app for monitoring severe weather; it also includes a helpful seasonal allergy tracker. Scroll down to the Health & Wellness section, and you’ll find a graph with allergy metrics for the current week. Tap on each section to get specific data about tree, grass, or ragweed allergens. Below that, you’ll find a pollen breakdown with callouts of the most prevalent allergens in the air. The final graph below that offers a two-week look at when your allergy symptoms are most likely to spike so that you can prepare with the proper medications or schedule modifications.

You can identify bad allergy days, minimize your symptoms, and tailor your schedule to keep allergies at bay.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/The Weather Channel

AccuWeather

Also another contender in our must-have apps for storm season, AccuWeather is equipped with a 10-day seasonal allergy outlook graph. It includes a breakdown for the most troubling allergens, like tree pollen, ragweed pollen, mold, grass pollen, and dust and dander, along with color-coded warnings that indicate low to extreme levels of each so you know when your most sensitive allergies will be a problem. Swipe left on this graph to see how the air impacts common health conditions (arthritis, common cold, flu, and asthma), the best time to do certain outdoor activities (running, biking, fishing, and mowing the lawn), and even the best days to travel (either by car or plane).

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/AccuWeather

My Pollen Forecast (iOS only)

I normally wouldn’t include an app that is only available for one mobile platform in a list like this, but since this one is my personal favorite, I had to throw it into the mix. My Pollen Forecast starts with a glanceable color-coded map that shows the pollen count in your area. Green indicates low pollen, yellow is for medium levels, orange stands for medium-high pollen, and red can range from high to very high counts.

RELATED: Storm season is here. Yes, you need a better weather app.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Tap into the forecasts tab to get a multiday forecast of allergy conditions, plus temperature and humidity. My favorite part about My Pollen Forecast, though, is that you can set notifications for your phone to automatically alert you if high pollen is predicted for your area, providing a helpful reminder to curb symptoms with any necessary allergy medications or nasal sprays.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/My Pollen Forecast

WeatherBug

WeatherBug is a powerful app that offers a wide range of helpful information about the weather, air quality, and seasonal allergies. The pollen widget on the front page highlights a quick breakdown of the pollen levels in your area, as well as the predominant offenders for the day (in this case, oak, hackberry, and cedar/juniper). Tap on the widget, and you’ll find a map view that can be enlarged to see color-coded pollen metrics for the entire United States ranging from green (lowest levels) to red (highest levels). Like My Pollen Forecast, WeatherBug can also send notifications to alert you when high pollen levels are expected in your region, making it a must-have for anyone with particularly pesky allergy symptoms.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/WeatherBug

Zyrtec AllergyCast

Last but not least, Zyrtec AllergyCast is another option for your allergy-busting arsenal. It requires a free account to unlock all the features. Without an account, however, you can still see a four-day pollen forecast and a color-coded map with conditions for grass, tree, and weeds. The reason this app made the list, though, is for its logging capabilities. Whether you have bad seasonal allergies or you simply want to track your symptoms, the logging feature lets you rate your symptoms (from smiley face to a frowning face), mark down your most troublesome symptoms (itchy nose, runny nose, and sneezing), choose your treatment plan (including medications and nasal sprays), and even write down notes that describe how you feel. With a regular log, you can see how your body reacts to certain allergens over time, giving you broader insights into your seasonal health.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Zyrtec AllergyCast

Seasonal allergies are an unavoidable part of spring, but with a bit of knowledge and foresight gleaned from the apps in this list, you can identify bad allergy days, minimize your symptoms, and tailor your schedule to keep allergies at bay.

​Tech 

A heroic ICE agent rushed in and saved a 1-year-old boy who had become unresponsive while waiting in a TSA line at John F. Kennedy Airport.

The Department of Homeland Security released footage showing a child going limp in a man’s arms before an ICE agent rushes to help. The agent was able to perform the Heimlich maneuver on the 1-year-old, ultimately restoring the child’s breathing, according to a statement from the DHS.

‘This officer’s extraordinary bravery embodies the selfless service of DHS law enforcement.’

“At JFK Airport, as travelers waited in hours-long lines, an infant became unresponsive and stopped breathing,” the statement read.

“The panic of the child’s family and nearby passengers were heard by an ICE agent stationed at a checkpoint. This heroic officer immediately sprang into action — rushing toward the cries, taking the child, and performing a Heimlich maneuver that restored the infant’s breathing after nearly two minutes.”

RELATED: Trump says Democrats’ scheme against DHS has backfired: ‘The Public is loving ICE’

“This officer’s extraordinary bravery embodies the selfless service of DHS law enforcement,” the statement reads.

According to Bill Melugin of Fox News, citing the DHS, the incident occurred Wednesday, and the child made a “full recovery.”

This lifesaving moment comes just days after President Donald Trump deployed ICE agents to assist TSA agents in airports across the country while Democrats drag the DHS shutdown into its sixth week.

Although ICE has been treated as a politically contentious group, countless reporters show travelers thanking agents for stepping up to the plate. Some videos even depict ICE officers handing out water bottles while travelers wait in unprecedented TSA lines.

RELATED: Trump adds new condition to ICE airport plan in DHS shutdown fight

Mark Felix/Bloomberg/Getty Images

“They’re here to help,” one traveler at Newark said. “They’re not bothering nobody. As long as they can check my bags and get me on my flight, I’m good to go.”

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The gruesome discovery of the remains of two young girls in suitcases has led to more than two dozen charges for their mother in Cleveland.

The remains were found by a man who was walking his dog in a residential area near a field on March 4.

‘I went back and looked, and it was a suitcase that was half buried, and I pulled it up and looked in it, and it was a head. Somebody’s head in it.’

The man was identified as Phillip Donaldson, who spoke to WEWS-TV about what he witnessed.

“It was like a pile of dirt, and she stopped to sniff, and I usually just walk and she catch up with me, and she was taking too long. So I went back and looked, and it was a suitcase that was half buried, and I pulled it up and looked in it, and it was a head. Somebody’s head in it.”

Donaldson said he was shocked because the location was near a school.

“It’s really sad to see something like this, and I had been walking past that for at least a week — that pile of dirt for at least a week before I even just went across my mind that I would check it,” he added. “Was it buried? Yeah, it was buried pretty much, you could see just the very top of it.”

Police identified the girls’ 28-year-old mother, Aliyah Henderson, as a suspect and arrested her for the murders. In addition to murder, she was charged with kidnapping and abuse of corpses charges.

The children were later identified as 10-year-old Amor Wilson and 8-year-old Mila Chatman. Police said they were half-siblings.

Attorneys appointed for Henderson said she pleaded not guilty at a court hearing Thursday. Henderson is eligible for the death penalty if she’s convicted.

RELATED: Illegal alien coach who allegedly murdered 13-year-old now charged with horrendous sex crimes against 2 other underage boys

Henderson was given a $2 million bond.

Police also released video of Henderson’s arrest at her home. A third child was found living with her at the time, and that child was taken into custody of Ohio social workers.

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