Thune resists Trump on filibuster as Republicans advance immigration funding bill

John Thune refused Donald Trump’s call to scrap the filibuster, but Senate Republicans found a different way to weaken it without touching the rule itself: they used budget reconciliation to move a multibillion-dollar immigration funding bill that can pass with a simple majority. The plan is built to send roughly $70 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the rest of Trump’s term, while letting Republican leaders say the Senate’s 60-vote threshold still exists on paper.

The maneuver matters because reconciliation is a narrow procedural lane, not a full repeal of the filibuster. The Senate adopted the budget resolution on a 50-48 vote on April 23, with Republicans using a budget blueprint to unlock the drafting process for the final bill. Under that process, the measure avoids the 60-vote hurdle that blocks most legislation, but it still faces scrutiny from the parliamentarian and a long run of amendment votes.

Thune framed the move as a response to Democratic resistance, saying Republicans had to fund law enforcement and border security through reconciliation after Democrats refused to agree to additional immigration enforcement money. The fight grew out of the broader Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which began in mid-February after Democrats demanded changes following fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents in Minneapolis. Republicans had already separated the most controversial agencies from the rest of DHS, leaving the rest of the department to another funding track.

That is how the filibuster can be hollowed out without being formally abolished. Leaders can claim they are preserving Senate norms because the rule remains intact, while using special procedures to move the most politically sensitive bills around it. The same reconciliation tool was used last year for Trump’s tax-and-spending package, and House Republicans later advanced the Senate blueprint on a 214-212-1 vote, bringing Congress closer to finishing the two-part funding plan. Trump wants the final product on his desk by June 1, a deadline that shows how quickly a supposedly protected Senate norm can be made to bend when a majority decides the policy prize is large enough.