The House narrowly passed a bill providing nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement Tuesday, sending it to President Donald Trump for his signature. The 214-212 vote was along party lines, with Republicans using their majority to push the measure through over unanimous Democratic opposition.
According to the White House, the bill allocates $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol and $5 billion for unforeseen costs, frontloading routine annual funding to ensure an uninterrupted flow of money as the Trump administration pursues its goal of deporting 1 million people per year. The funding comes with virtually no oversight requirements, after negotiations with Democrats over reforms to ICE operations collapsed.
The bill is the product of a monthslong standoff that produced what the source describes as the longest shutdown in DHS history, after Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security following immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and other cities. Republicans used a procedural maneuver to bypass the Senate filibuster; the Senate passed the bill last week 52-47, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republican to vote against it.
“Republicans have now come back for more, to give ICE and Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine another $70 billion blank check, with no oversight, no accountability and no guardrails,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. Speaker Mike Johnson defended the bill: “We have to fund border security and immigration enforcement, and it’s sad that Republicans have to do it on our own.”
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