Politics

Senate Passes Major Immigration Enforcement Bill After Weaponization Fund Threw Wrench In Process

Wikimedia Commons/Public/Jessica Rodriguez Rivas

The Senate passed the $69.5 billion reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement Friday after an anti-weaponization fund and White House ballroom funding threatened its passage.

The Senate passed the package in an 52-47 vote, which would provide over $30.73 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), $22.57 billion to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and $2.5 billion in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations through 2029. The passage didn’t meet President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline after the administration’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund threatened its passage.

The reconciliation process only needs a simple majority of 51 votes to pass. Senate Republicans drafted the legislation in response to the 76-day shutdown of DHS after Democrats refused to fund the agency following high-profile shootings involving immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in January.

Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only member of her party to vote against the package.

A handful of Senate Republicans, including Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Katie Britt of Alabama feared that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) fund would compensate Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol rioters convicted of assaulting police officers. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he was “not a fan” of the fund, adding that certain guardrails should have been affixed to the fund.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified Tuesday that the administration was not moving forward with the fund. The chamber held a vote-a-rama, where Democrats attempted to send the funding package back to the Senate Judiciary Committee and add instructions to ensure the fund would never be revived.

The amendment failed in a 49 to 50 vote, with Republicans Sens. Susan Collins, Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska joining Democrats in favor of the amendment. All three of these senators are up for reelection in the 2026 midterm elections.

Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis put forward an amendment to redirect money from the DOJ fund to fraud enforcement, which failed in a 15 to 84 vote. Tillis decided not to run for reelection in June 2025 after Trump threatened to primary him over his opposition the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act.

Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who has broken with his party in a number of votes, told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday he planned to vote against the funding package.

“I’m going to vote with my party,” Fetterman told the DCNF.

The package also faced hurdles because of Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who ruled that four sectionsviolated the Byrd Rule, which dictates that provisions in a reconciliation bill must have a direct, non-incidental impact on the federal budget. The impacted provisions involved funding for CBP, DHS appropriations and additional funds to screen unaccompanied migrant children.

MacDonough also ruled that the $1 billion in funding for security enhancements tied to the White House ballroom construction violated the Byrd Rule, causing Senate Republicans to eliminate that funding from the revised version of the package. The ruling caused Trump to pressure Thune and Senate Republicans to replace MacDonough.