House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) says the attack in Paris on Wednesday highlights the need to keep the Department of Homeland Security open through the battle over immigration. 

{mosads}Republicans are in the midst of figuring out a strategy to fight President Obama’s executive action on immigration. Under the spending bill passed last year, funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires in February, allowing Republicans to revisit the immigration battle. 

“Our leadership and I just got out of the meeting and had discussions about how to proceed,” McCaul said on CNN’s “Situation Room” Wednesday night. “We want to stop this executive action, but I think the responsible individuals like myself have no desire to shut down this department. It’s too important to the national security interest of the United States.”

“I think this incident today highlights why that’s necessary,” he later added, referring to the attack by masked gunmen on Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper in Paris, that killed 12 people. 

Asked if a deal will be worked out to keep the Department of Homeland Security open, McCaul replied, “Yes.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also said the department will stay open, though it is unclear what a deal would look like at this point. 

“It’s an important piece of legislation, and we’ll decide in February how to handle it, but at the end of the day, we’re going to fund the department, obviously,” McConnell said at a press conference earlier on Wednesday.