Congress has finally passed a $70 billion funding bill for federal immigration enforcement on Tuesday, putting to rest a four-month fight over the fate of President Trump’s mass deportations agenda.
House Republicans, in a party-line vote of 214-212, approved the spending for the Department of Homeland Security after the Senate had passed the measure last Friday. Democrats were universally opposed and joined in that opposition by Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.), who recently left the GOP.
“With today’s vote, House and Senate Republicans have officially ended the third Democrat government shutdown of this Congress,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a statement. “And here’s the end result of Democrats’ record-setting obstruction: CBP and ICE will now be funded for the remainder of President Trump’s term and Democrats will have no ability to defund these agencies in the 119th or 120th Congresses.”
DHS had been unfunded mostly from mid-February to April, with some immigration enforcement-focused agencies still requiring funding after that. The measure now moves to Trump’s desk for his signature.
Republicans had quibbled over including provisions for $1 billion for beefed up security at Trump’s White House ballroom, as well as a potential prohibition against using any funds for a $1.776 billion judgment fund to compensate perceived victims of “weaponized” prosecutions.
Neither item was tucked into the bill after weeks of deliberations — despite some GOP senators offering amendments to do away with the fund — and the legislation was passed by a simple majority in both chambers through a process known as budget reconciliation.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was the only Republican to oppose it.
Democrats in the upper chamber had delayed passage for three months before that, refusing to back an earlier spending measure in January in protest of federal immigration officers’ fatal shootings of two Americans in Minneapolis.
The Secure America Act provides more than $9.5 billion in funding to help hire and pay Border Patrol agents; nearly $3.5 billion for new border surveillance technologies and efforts to combat fentanyl or other drug trafficking; and almost $7.5 billion for retaining more Homeland Security Investigations agents.
The spending allows both Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection to be fully funded through 2029, with an extra $2.5 billion for other Department of Homeland Security programs.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Democrats had opposed the DHS funding after the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, who were fatally shot while protesting a surge of federal officers to the Twin Cities for deportations. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Alex Wong/Getty Images |
All Senate Democrats and GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski voted against the measure that funds ICE and CBP last week.
President Donald Trump signed the $70 billion Republican-led homeland security bill Wednesday after the Senate-crafted measure narrowly passed the House despite the GOP's slim majority.
Speaking from the Oval Office alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and other lawmakers, Trump said he was "thrilled" to fund the Department of Homeland Security and give "heroes of ICE and Border Patrol" needed resources through the end of his term, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"The bill provides crucial funding for domestic law enforcement investigations and combating child exploitation, continuing our work to restore law and order across our nation, and to protect America's youth," the president said.
"For more than 100 days, congressional Democrats tried to block all funding for the Department of Homeland Security in a reprehensible attempt to throw open the borders of the United States of America," he added. "They want to drag us straight back to chaos and crime of the Crooked Joe Biden administration, one of the most corrupt administrations, probably the most corrupt ever."
Trump took shots at former President Joe Biden for his "open border policy" allowing 25 million migrants to illegally enter the U.S. and former Vice President Kamala Harris, named border czar, for not utilizing ICE and border patrol.
"She never once called them," Trump said. "She was the border czar for four years, almost four years, and she never went to the border, and she never called up. I used to call them all the time."
He said the crossing of fentanyl across the border has been cut by almost 60%, with law enforcement now narrowing in on land crossings "because the sea was tougher." --->READ MORE HERE
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