Congress readies – Congress is moving a nearly $70 billion, lightly constrained funding package toward the House to support the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration enforcement through 2029—fueling President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda as Democrats and immigr
By the time the Senate voted in the early hours, the message was already clear: the money was going to keep moving.
A nearly $70 billion package to fund the Department of Homeland Security is now headed to the House after clearing the Republican-held Senate in a middle-of-the-night vote. The bill comes with what Democrats and pro-immigrant advocates have called unusually few guardrails—an approach that critics say effectively locks in resources for President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda for the rest of his term.
The Democratic leader called it a “rotten bill.” Pro-immigrant advocates labeled it an “ATM for ICE.” For Trump-aligned immigration hardliners, it is less a negotiation than a guarantee.
Trump border czar Tom Homan said, “We’re going to continue to arrest people, we’re going to continue to detain people and we’re going to keep deporting people.” He also hinted at summer sweeps of enforcement actions coming to New York City.
The nearly dozen-page bill is notable for how quickly it can be turned into action. It provides $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations and billions for the Border Patrol. while prepaying the department’s operations through 2029. For advocates. the concern is not just the size of the package—it’s the lack of the usual instructions about how the money can be spent.
Vanessa Cardenas, the executive director of America’s Voice, said it was difficult to accept that tax dollars would go to what she described as a “mass deportation machine” while Americans struggle to afford health care, access food, and pay for gas.
The funding push arrives as the Trump administration works to shift how the country talks about immigration enforcement—especially after violent scenes earlier this year and the shooting deaths of Americans Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. The administration has installed new leadership at Homeland Security.
Instead of relying only on dramatic street sweeps, it has pursued actions that can reduce immigrant groups’ ability to stay in the United States. That includes doing away with Temporary Protected Status or making it more difficult to secure green cards.
Young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children—often referred to as “Dreamers”—have reported delays in renewing their Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status, exposing them to potential deportation.
Protests continue in the United States, including demonstrations over detention conditions at the Delaney Hall facility in New Jersey.
At the same time, Homeland Security is continuing its buildout. The department is hiring more ICE agents and is hosting an employment fair next month in Florida. It is also working to build more detention facilities and partnering with countries around the world to take people who are being deported from the United States.
In a statement. Homeland Security said Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin are “laser focused on ensuring the hardworking men and women” of ICE and Customs and Border Patrol are fully funded. The department added that the congressional package “will ensure our critical national security operations continue despite any Democrat attempts to hold our great patriotic employees hostage in the future.”.
Funding for the department is already substantial. Congress approved about $170 billion for Homeland Security last summer as part of Trump’s large tax breaks bill, and this new package is coming on top of that earlier infusion.
The fight over how much oversight Congress gets to impose has also become part of the story. Typically. a funding package runs hundreds of pages and includes specific instructions about how money can be spent and on what timelines. Congress holds the “power of the purse,” and the appropriations process is often where lawmakers attach checks.
But Democrats refused to fund Homeland Security earlier this year after the violence in Minnesota, and Republicans retaliated by using the congressional budget resolution process to move the package through without relying on the traditional appropriations channels.
Bobby Kogan, a former staff member of the Senate Budget Committee who is now at the Center for American Progress, said the usual oversight doesn’t happen through the budget resolution process.
Overnight, Democrats in the Senate tried to assert more control by offering amendments that would have ensured Congress had some say in the process. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois sought to protect “Dreamers” from deportation as their DACA renewals are being delayed, but those efforts failed.
The timing also matters politically. The work of Congress is happening as Trump and Republicans head toward midterm elections with voters who have been unsettled by the administration’s immigration operations. An AP-NORC poll conducted in April found about one in three U.S. adults know someone who has been impacted by Trump’s immigration operations. As the country marks its 250th anniversary. most people say the United States is no longer a great place for immigrants.
Democrats have framed the vote as a transfer of power and leverage away from oversight and toward the executive branch. The administration has framed it as funding for “critical national security operations” and an effort to keep ICE and Customs and Border Patrol working.
Backed by the Mass Deportation Coalition, the politics of what comes next are tied directly to the president’s deportation promise. The administration has faced enormous pressure to boost deportations to some 1 million a year, after first-year numbers fell short.
Mike Howell. president of the Oversight Project and a leader of the Mass Deportation Coalition. argued that people were misreading what the money means. He said the idea of ICE receiving “another massive cash injection” wasn’t how he viewed it. saying. “They’re getting like life-support money. ” and adding. “We’re not asking them to keep going. We’re asking them to start.”.
Howell said reaching the president’s deportation goals would be difficult unless the administration drops priorities for what he and others call the “worst of the worst.” His group released a framework earlier this year that proposes more comprehensive sweeps to arrest immigrants. particularly in the workplace.
The coalition also wants more pressure on everyday systems that immigrants rely on, including making it harder for immigrants already in the U.S. to use the banking system, get social services, and obtain drivers licenses. Republicans in Congress have offered bills tackling some of those issues.
Inside the administration, messaging is also changing. The administration has increased its rhetoric and posted a new website characterizing immigrants as “aliens” with outer-space themes, suggesting ways the White House is working to prevent people from staying in the United States.
Now, with the Senate having cleared the package and the House next in line, the central question is how quickly Congress can slow down what it has already funded—or whether, for critics and advocates alike, the next phase is simply a matter of timing.
Congress Department of Homeland Security ICE Border Patrol mass deportation Tom Homan Dreamers DACA Temporary Protected Status Markwayne Mullin Delaney Hall