Senate Approves $70B Funding for ICE, Border Patrol After All-Night ‘Slush Fund’ Debate

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

The Senate handed President Donald Trump a huge legislative victory early Friday, approving a bill that would inject an additional $70 billion into immigration enforcement agencies central to his administration’s mass deportation agenda.

The measure passed 52-47 largely along party lines at 5 a.m. ET, with Democrats unanimously opposed and one Republican, Lisa Murkowski (AK), breaking ranks.

The legislation now heads to the House, where lawmakers are expected to take it up next week.

The funding package would dramatically expand resources for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol over the next three years, bolstering an immigration crackdown that has become a defining feature of Trump’s second term.

The money would come on top of roughly $100 billion in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) enforcement funding approved by Republicans last year that remains unspent.

The final vote followed a marathon Senate session dominated as much by intraparty Republican tensions as by immigration policy itself.

Democrats sought to force votes on a series of amendments targeting other controversial Trump initiatives, including efforts to block federal funding for the proposed White House ballroom and to eliminate the disputed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that critics say could be used to compensate violent January 6 rioters.

Neither of those amendments, however, was adopted.

The debate exposed divisions within the Republican conference, where Democratic attempts to strip funding tied to the compensation fund drew support from several Republican senators, although the proposal ultimately failed.

Despite the internal disputes, Republicans ultimately united behind the broader immigration package, delivering Trump a major policy win and advancing one of his administration’s highest-profile priorities in funding ICE.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!