It appears that an 11th hour solution to the Department of Homeland Security's expiring funding has been reached Wednesday after U.S. Senate Democrats have reportedly agreed with Republicans' plans to finance the department without the immigration executive action-killing amendments pushed by House Republicans.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, confirmed Wednesday that Senate Democrats had reached an agreement with Republicans, Reid tweeting that he and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, "have had a number of very good discussions" and the two sides had come to an agreement on passing a clean Homeland Security funding bill.

The agreement could mean that the department, which is responsible for overseeing immigration and border security for the U.S., could avoid a potential shutdown with its funding due to expire at the end of the week.

Reid met with reporters after a private session with Democrats to confirm the news.

"It's an important step to be able to send to the House of Representatives a bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security," Reid said. "We look forward to working with our Republican colleagues in the next 24 hours to get this done. All eyes now shift to the House of Representatives as soon as we pass our clean funding bill."

The Senate later voted 98-2 to open debate on whether to vote separately on a finance package for the department and then a proposed bill to block President Obama's executive actions, which would shield roughly five million undocumented immigrants across the nation from deportation.

The actions, enacted in November after the midterm elections, have been at the center of a gridlocked struggle between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill surrounding how to fund the department. House Republicans passed a bill that would finance Homeland Security without the immigration executive actions by Obama, but Senate Democrats have blocked the bill with a filibuster, the impasse putting the department on course to see its funding expire heading into March.

Even if passed by the Senate, however, the standalone DHS funding bill would still have to pass the GOP-controlled House. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has stated that the House has "done its job" in passing the DHS funding bill and he was waiting for the Senate to respond.

The news came on the same day as President Obama met with Latino, Asian American and Pacific Islander immigration and labor advocates to discuss the status of Obama's executive actions. President Obama acknowledged the situation involving Homeland Security as well as a Texas district court judge's ruling last week that has prevented the administration from enacting the immigration executive actions on the grounds that the president exceeded his legal authority in ordering those measures.

However, President Obama assured advocates Wednesday that despite the ruling, "the Administration will continue to make progress on many components of the executive actions and is confident we will ultimately be able to implement the deferred action policies," according to a White House statement.

As the deadline for the department's funding expiration draws near, Republicans face pressure on two fronts. On the one hand, the party's hard-line supporters opposed to President Obama's immigration executive actions will likely not be pleased if the Congressional Republicans decide to finance Homeland Security with those executive actions still intact. A letter sent to the House GOP's leadership this week by U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-South Carolina, urges the party to "stand firm against these unlawful executive actions."

On the other hand, the longer the situation involving Homeland Security's finances drags out, the more damage and criticism Republicans could face in the public eye. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who was part of the bipartisan panel known as the "Gang of Eight" that attempted to pass an immigration reform bill in 2013 that passed the Senate but was killed off by the House, warned this week on Fox News & Friends that letting Homeland Security's funding expire was "bad strategy."

"For God's sake, don't shut down the premier homeland security defense line called the Department of Homeland Security," the senator said. "If we do, as Republicans, we'll get blamed."