Senate passes $70B immigration bill after 18-hour fight

Senate passes – After an 18-hour vote-a-rama, the Senate passed a roughly $70 billion immigration enforcement funding bill for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term—sending it to the House next week. The back-and-forth reflected months of disputes over immigration-ag

On the Senate floor. the clock ran long—an 18-hour vote-a-rama that left lawmakers watching the next roll call like it might never end. By the time the chamber finally moved. the decision was plain: a bill to fund both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol for the remainder of President Donald Trump’s term. now headed to the House next week.

The fight behind that simplicity had taken months to build. Senators from both parties proposed 29 amendments and motions before the bill cleared. But what unfolded Thursday into Friday was only the last round in a much wider battle over how immigration enforcement should work—and what safeguards. if any. should come attached to new funding.

That wider fight didn’t stay inside immigration policy. It spilled into other politically volatile areas. including funding for the White House ballroom and the recently announced “anti-weaponization” fund—an effort Democrats and some Republicans tried to block while lawsuits and a Justice Department decision later stopped its establishment.

The bill’s journey began in January, when government funding was set to expire. Senate Democrats. angered by the killings of two protesters by immigration officers in Minneapolis. pledged to block new funding if it included appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security—the department that oversees both ICE and the Border Patrol.

Democrats argued the government needed guardrails before more money flowed to immigration enforcement. They pushed for specific limits. including a ban on face masks for ICE agents and body cams for all immigration officers. Their position was firm: without those changes, they wouldn’t approve additional funds.

A compromise eventually took shape. Senators approved a plan to fund all federal agencies except DHS. The funding lapse that followed created major delays in airports across the country. The Transportation Security Agency couldn’t pay officers who work security screening checkpoints. As officers resigned or refused to work. ICE agents were deployed to fill gaps—an unusual substitution that quickly turned airport operations into a political and operational headache.

As pressure mounted, Congress and President Donald Trump passed a DHS funding bill. That bill appropriated money for agencies including the TSA. the Federal Emergency Management Agency. and the Secret Service—but not for the Border Patrol and ICE. Democrats kept insisting that reforms were needed before the immigration agencies received more funding.

The reforms Democrats sought were specific and far-reaching. Democrats wanted a requirement that immigration officials obtain a judicial warrant before entering private property. They also demanded verification that detainees were not U.S. citizens or were legal residents.

They also wanted to bar immigration officials from wearing masks or face coverings, and to require visible identification—meaning the agency name, ID numbers, and their last name. Republicans pushed back, arguing the measures would put agents in danger.

Democrats’ demands went beyond appearance and entry rules. They pressed for new use-of-force standards and training. body cameras for all agents. and a ban on conducting enforcement operations in “sensitive locations.” In their view. any additional funding had to come with stronger transparency and safeguards.

The immigration fight kept dragging in other issues. too—making the eventual endgame feel less like a single policy negotiation and more like a collision of unrelated priorities. Trump requested security funding tied to his new White House ballroom. and lawmakers also wrestled with efforts by Democrats and several Republicans to prevent the administration from creating an “anti-weaponization” fund.

The stakes were not abstract. The fund, lawmakers warned, could put cash in the hands of Jan. 6 rioters. But lawsuits halted its establishment, and the Justice Department announced it was not moving forward with it. Even so. lawmakers tried to add language to the immigration funding bill that would halt or limit the administration’s ability to create the fund. Those efforts ultimately failed.

There were also fights over Secret Service money. Republicans included language to set aside $1 billion in Secret Service funding, part of which could go to the ballroom. Democrats forced Republicans to scrap the amendment. At the same time. Republicans rejected a proposal from Democratic lawmakers to stop housing official Bill Pulte from serving as acting director of national intelligence.

After all that, the final immigration package came out stripped down.

The bill remaining after the back-and-forth would do one central job: it would fund both ICE and the Border Patrol. The reforms Democrats sought—such as the ban on facial coverings for ICE agents—were not included.

If the House passes the bill next week and Trump signs it into law, the measure would provide $38.5 billion to ICE and more than $26 billion to Customs and Border Protection. An additional $5 billion would be set aside for dispersal at Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s discretion.

In the end. the Senate’s 18-hour effort delivered funding—but not the guardrails Democrats wanted to attach to that money. The question now shifts to whether the House will accept a bill that strips away the very reforms that helped turn immigration enforcement into a months-long legislative standoff.

Senate $70B immigration bill ICE Border Patrol vote-a-rama DHS Markwayne Mullin House floor body cameras face masks judicial warrant transportation security delays White House ballroom anti-weaponization fund