The U.S. Senate handed President Donald Trump a victory early Friday morning, passing a bill that would provide the Department of Homeland Security with an additional $70 billion for immigration enforcement and sending it to the House of Representatives for final consideration.
The Senate voted 52-47 to approve the legislation, with no support from Democrats. One Republican voted against the bill.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol already had a combined $100 billion in unspent funds that were part of a larger DHS spending package enacted last year by Republicans.
Extra Money for Deportation Operations
Much of Thursday's long debate over the bill was overshadowed by efforts from Democrats, and some Republicans, to insert language unrelated to immigration. Those proposals revolved around prohibiting the use of federal funds and even private donations for building the lavish, 90,000 square-foot ballroom on White House grounds that Trump wants.Senators also debated provisions making it illegal for federal dollars to be used for an "anti-weaponization" fund that could compensate Trump's political allies for allegations that the government mistreated them.
None of those amendments were approved.
The funding provided by the bill would help pay for Trump's migrant deportation campaign over the next three years and augment about $100 billion in unspent Department of Homeland Security law enforcement money enacted last year by Republicans, who control Congress.
Lawmakers began voting on amendments to the immigration bill in a "vote-a-rama" session early on Thursday that culminated in the vote on the underlying measure in the early hours of Friday.
An initial move by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to kill the "anti-weaponization" fund, which Democrats call a "slush fund" for Trump's allies, brought the session to a largely procedural halt for hours after Republican Senator Susan Collins voted for the motion.
She was later joined by fellow Republicans Jon Husted and Dan Sullivan.
Schumer's measure failed in a 50-49 vote but exposed the political turmoil among rank-and-file Senate Republicans. Some of them sought their own amendments to eliminate the fund permanently.
Collins, Husted, and Sullivan all face competitive races for reelection at a time when Trump's approval rating is down, even among Republicans.
The fund, which critics say would allow Trump to use taxpayer dollars to compensate his political allies, has already been put on hold by the White House and Justice Department.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who opposed Schumer's motion, told reporters he would not support passage of the funding bill without a Republican amendment vote to codify Blanche's congressional testimony that the administration was abandoning the fund.
ICE, Border Patrol Money Has Been Delayed for Months
Enactment of the roughly $70 billion bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol would end the blockade by Democrats who demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents in January. The bill would fund the agencies for three years, through the end of Trump’s term.Senate Republicans used a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it took weeks to get the bill to the Senate floor as Republicans navigated various obstacles to passage created by Trump and the White House—including a $1 billion proposal for White House security and Trump’s ballroom that they eventually scrapped, and the fierce bipartisan backlash to the settlement fund.
Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.
After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the department funding lapsed in mid-February with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Congress eventually funded the rest of the Homeland Security Department at the end of April with Democratic support, but ICE and Border Patrol have remained without regular funding.