Senate advances $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement through 2029

A roughly $70 billion immigration-enforcement package cleared its first Senate hurdle with party-line support, setting up a fight over how far Donald Trump’s second-term crackdown can expand before 2029. The bill would pour money into Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through fiscal year 2029, and Republicans are using budget reconciliation so they can pass it with a simple majority instead of 60 votes.

The scale marks a sharp escalation in federal immigration power. Senate Republicans had already laid down the marker in an April 2026 budget resolution that set a $70 billion cap for each committee drafting the legislation, and House and Senate Republicans later unveiled a $72 billion version on May 5. That earlier text would have sent $30.73 billion to ICE and $22.57 billion to Customs and Border Protection, along with $2.5 billion for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin and $1 billion for Secret Service security upgrades tied to the White House ballroom project. By June 3, Republicans had formally removed the ballroom-related money.

The debate had been stalled for weeks by backlash to a Trump-backed $1.776 billion Justice Department settlement fund for people who say they were politically prosecuted, along with a separate White House proposal that briefly tied $1 billion in security spending to the president’s planned ballroom. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the goal was to get the “base bill” across the finish line. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told Congress the administration was not moving forward with the settlement fund, but Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, argued that promise should be written into law because it could be reversed later. Sen. Thom Tillis said he may offer an amendment to block any future attempt to revive the fund.

Democrats blasted the package as a “blank check” for ICE and Border Patrol and said Republicans were ignoring cost-of-living concerns. The fight also intersected with the broader Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which had been underway since February amid Democratic resistance to ICE and Border Patrol funding and rising tensions after the killings of two American citizens in Minneapolis, Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Senate Republicans briefly left Washington last week without a vote, frustrated with the White House and at an impasse over how to handle the settlement fund. The current push now tests whether the Senate will back a sweeping expansion of immigration enforcement, or force the White House and Republicans to defend every dollar.