President Donald Trump moved one step closer Tuesday to locking in immigration enforcement funding through the end of his presidency.
Republicans’ $70 billion immigration enforcement and border security measure advanced along party lines during a test vote of 213-211. All Democrats present voted “no” during the procedural vote, which tend to be party-line.
The Senate-passed measure now heads to a vote on final passage in the House, where it is expected to be approved as early as Tuesday evening. Given Republicans’ slim majority in the lower chamber, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can afford to spare just a handful of votes.
“We need to fully fund this department, especially at a time of heightened security threats,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Tuesday.
DOZEN GOP REBELS FAIL TO PERMANENTLY KILL TRUMP’S CONTROVERSIAL $2B FUND
Some conservatives who want commitments from leadership to vote on legislation codifying Trump’s executive orders targeting illegal immigration and border security initially withheld their support during the test vote. However, the GOP lawmakers ultimately supported the measure’s advancement following discussions with leadership.
“We need to codify what the president has done across the board,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday. “So we’re going to fund the people who will try to keep the bad guys out, but we haven’t codified the actions to prevent them to do to come back here in three years or so.”
Tuesday’s vote came after the Senate approved the GOP-authored measure largely along party lines 52-47 last week, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joining Democrats to vote against the package. House Republicans chose to leave Washington for the weekend rather than begin advancing the bill Friday.
Republicans have sought to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for months amid entrenched opposition from Democrats, who refused to sign off on new funding without sweeping reforms.
“Giving a $70 billion blank check to ICE, who has a history of brutalizing, terrorizing communities, killing U.S. citizens, is not what we should be doing,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said Wednesday. “Those agencies need accountability and oversight. We should not be giving them more resources without also conditioning accountability.”
Democrats’ objections helped spark the longest shutdown in American history, though, in the end, the party secured no reforms.
GOP leadership ultimately decided to pursue the partisan budget reconciliation process to fund both agencies through fiscal year 2029, allowing the party to steer around Democrats’ opposition.
Trump initially gave congressional Republicans a June 1 deadline to secure funding for ICE and CBP, but intra-party opposition to the president’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” delayed the measure’s passage. Some Republicans feared people convicted of violent offenses, including assaulting police officers, in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot could access taxpayer funds.
Meanwhile, Democrats labeled the funding pot a “slush fund” designed to pay off the president’s political allies.
A coalition of congressional Republicans also rebelled against the inclusion of $1 billion in security upgrades for the president’s ballroom project, which is already under construction. The president has previously said the East Wing project would be funded through private donations.
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