Senate Passes $70B Bill Funding ICE and Border Patrol Through 2029

Senate Republicans muscled through a $70 billion package early Friday to bankroll immigration enforcement agencies through the end of President Donald Trump’s term, capping an 18-hour marathon of votes that exposed cracks in party unity over a controversial $1.8 billion settlement fund. The 52-47 vote, with only Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski breaking ranks among Republicans, sends the measure to the House and locks in resources for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection at a time when the administration has signaled aggressive expansion of detention and removal operations.

The funding, carved out of a larger Homeland Security measure, would run through 2029 and includes roughly $38.6 billion for ICE operations, $22.6 billion for Border Patrol, and additional sums for related enforcement and child exploitation investigations. Republicans used budget reconciliation to sidestep the 60-vote filibuster threshold, a procedural move Democrats have condemned as an end-run around regular appropriations. Murkowski cited that bypass as a key reason for her opposition, arguing that long-term funding decisions should not be rushed through reconciliation.

The real drama unfolded during the overnight “vote-a-rama,” when lawmakers from both parties tried repeatedly to attach language permanently blocking the so-called anti-weaponization fund. That pot of money, drawn from a settlement tied to Trump’s lawsuit over the 2019 leak of his tax returns, would allow taxpayer payouts to individuals who claim they were politically targeted by the government. Democrats and a handful of Republicans have warned it could function as a slush fund for Jan. 6 defendants or other political allies. An amendment offered by Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., to redirect any payments to police officers injured in the Capitol attack was defeated along party lines, as were Democratic proposals to bar the fund outright.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune insisted the fund was a settled issue after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress it would not move forward. Yet the assurances did little to calm nerves inside the caucus, where members who were present during the January 2021 attack remain uneasy about any mechanism that might compensate those involved. The episode forced GOP leaders to spend hours corralling votes rather than celebrating what they framed as a long-overdue win on border security.

Democrats, who had blocked the funding for months and helped trigger the longest partial government shutdown in history, used the session to force uncomfortable votes on vulnerable Republicans. Amendments targeting the fund and other administration priorities failed, but the narrow margins revealed three GOP senators in tough reelection races willing to cross the aisle on at least one measure. The episode underscored how Trump’s second-term agenda continues to generate friction even within a party that controls both chambers.

The bill now heads to the House, where leaders have signaled they could take it up as soon as next week. For immigration agencies that already held substantial unspent balances from prior years, the new infusion guarantees sustained capacity for expanded enforcement at a moment when the administration has made mass removals a central priority. Critics say the process that produced the funding, and the refusal to close off the settlement fund, leaves open questions about accountability and the use of public resources.