WASHINGTON: House Republicans sounded a retreat from a battle that could partially shut down the Homeland Security Department, agreeing to push short-term funding for the agency while leaving in place Obama administration immigration policies they have vowed to repeal.

Spending for the department, which oversees the nation’s borders, expires Friday at midnight — held hostage in a proxy battle over President Barack Obama’s recent executive actions sparing millions of immigrants in this country illegally from deportation.

Republicans said legislation to provide funding for Homeland Security for three weeks would be put to a vote in the House on Friday. Senate Democratic officials indicated they would agree to it, and predicted President Barack Obama would sign the measure, averting a partial shutdown of an agency with major anti-terrorism responsibilities.

Outlining a second step in their revised strategy, Rep. Dennis Ross said House Republicans would also seek negotiations with the Senate on a spending bill to fund the agency until the Sept. 30 end of the budget year while also rolling back Obama’s immigration directives.

The proposal under consideration by House Republicans marked a retreat from their longstanding insistence that no money be approved for Homeland Security as long as Obama’s immigration directives remained in place.

Whatever the eventual outcome, it appeared Obama was closing in on a triumph in his latest showdown with the Republican-controlled Congress.

Still, Republican leaders were taking heat from conservative colleagues.

Numerous House Republicans say it’s preferable to let the Homeland Security Department go unfunded for a few days, at least, if that’s the cost of undoing a White House immigration policy they consider unlawful. These lawmakers say the impact on national security would be minimal, as would the political risks.

“Shutting down” the agency known as DHS “is a set of words that don’t really have the meaning that people attribute to it,” said Rep. Mo Brooks. “There was hardly any effect whatsoever on the Department of Homeland Security from the last shutdown, and I would anticipate a similar effect this time.”

Brooks was referring to the 2013 partial federal government shutdown that Americans blamed mostly on Republicans, and which many Republican leaders have vowed not to repeat.

If Congress doesn’t act before the deadline to fund Homeland Security for another year, the shutdown would mean almost 90 percent of the department’s workers who are considered essential would have to work without pay until the situation is resolved. The showdown is therefore unlikely to have an immediate impact on US security beyond worsening morale.

With directives issued in 2012 and earlier this year, Obama largely eliminated the threat of deportation for more than 4 million immigrants who entered the country illegally, including some brought to the United States as youngsters by their parents.