The U.S. Senate passed a $70 billion immigration enforcement bill early Friday, voting 52-47 and handing the Trump administration a win it nearly fumbled over a fight that had nothing to do with the border. The measure now goes to the House, which is not expected to take it up before next week.
Nearly all of the new money flows to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to sustain the administration’s deportation push over the next three years.
ICE and CBP already hold a combined $100 billion in unspent funds from a larger DHS package enacted the previous year by the Republican-controlled Congress. The fresh $70 billion nearly doubles their available resources.
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The vote came only after an all-night brawl driven almost entirely by the $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund buried in the bill. The fund could compensate Trump’s political allies for alleged government mistreatment and individuals who received clemency following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot convictions.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer moved to kill the fund outright, and three Republicans crossed to support him, consisting of Sens. Susan Collins, Jon Husted, and Dan Sullivan, all of whom are facing competitive races ahead of November’s midterm elections. The amendment failed 50-49.
The vote-a-rama that consumed Thursday also featured a prolonged Senate debate over Democratic and some Republican efforts to ban federal funds and private donations from being used to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on White House grounds.
No amendment on the ballroom, the fund, or any unrelated provision ultimately passed.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the lone Republican to vote against the final bill. She told NBC News her opposition came down to two things, the bill’s end-run around the Senate’s regular appropriations process, which requires bipartisan support, and the failure to formally eliminate the anti-weaponization fund. On the second point, she and Schumer were in agreement. On the first, she was alone on her side of the aisle.
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