Bill clears 50–48 vote to boost ICE and CBP funding as Democrats oppose and shutdown continues
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Senate Republicans on Thursday approved a plan to fund Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants for the remainder of his term and pave the way for an end to the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The budget resolution adopted along a near party line vote in the early morning hours sets the stage for Congress to craft legislation allocating as much as $140b to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), two agencies at the forefront of Trump’s mass deportation agenda that have been without funding since mid-February, when the DHS shutdown began.
The budget resolution passed by a 50-48 vote, with all Democrats in opposition along with Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky. Its advancement is an important step in the budget reconciliation process, which Republicans are using to skirt a filibuster by Democrats who have refused to vote for funding ICE or CBP after federal agents killed two US citizens in January during an intensive immigration operation in Minneapolis.
