Border Czar Tom Homan this week expressed hope that President Donald Trump would use his influence to pressure Congress to end the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which has lasted for more than one month.

The Senate, last week, passed a 3 a.m. bill to fund parts of DHS, excluding ICE and CBP, before they left on vacation. An enraged House, however, passed its own 60-day continuing resolution to fund DHS in full. Homan, for his part, expressed concerns about the funding lapse, saying “[w]e just need to get the Department funded."

"They want to talk about immigration policies, we can talk about that, but why do you got to hold the rest of the DHS hostage to be able to do that? Let’s sit down and talk," he said on "Face the Nation."

Asked about the prospect of Trump forcing lawmakers to return to D.C. and resolve the issue, he responded, “[w]ell look, I hope so.”

“We’re in an increased threat posture because of what’s going on around the world. We’ve got to keep this country safe,” he went on.

Congress split the DHS appropriations bill off from a package of 6 appropriations bills after Democrats raised objections to immigration policy in the wake of the death of Alex Pretti, an anti-ICE demonstrator in Minneapolis, Minn.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.