US Senate approves $70 billion for Trump immigration crackdown

WASHINGTON, United States, June 5 (AFP): The US Senate on Friday approved $70 billion in funding for Donald Trump's hardline immigration crackdown, but only after a long day of votes on multiple amendments that highlighted Republican infighting over some of the president's other contentious policy proposals.
The bill would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through the rest of Trump's term, handing the Republican leader a major victory on one of his signature issues after months of bitter fighting over the future of immigration enforcement.
It now heads to the House of Representatives, where Republican leaders hope to move it early next week to send it to Trump's desk.
The package follows a record partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this year, when Democrats refused to support new money for immigration enforcement without restrictions on tactics such as raids in sensitive locations and the use of masks by officers.
Republicans rejected those demands, instead choosing to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the fast-track "budget reconciliation" process, which allows them to bypass Democratic opposition if they can keep their own members united.
The Senate vote came after an hours-long amendment marathon known in Washington as a "vote-a-rama," a chaotic process allowing lawmakers to force votes on politically sensitive issues before final passage.
For Trump, the process meant renewed scrutiny of controversies that have alarmed members of his own party, including a proposed "anti-weaponization" fund for allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the government and $1 billion that had been earmarked for security around his planned White House ballroom.
The underlying immigration bill no longer included the ballroom money, but both issues became symbols of a broader unease among Republicans about defending Trump's priorities ahead of midterm elections expected to be dominated by voter concerns over the cost of living.
The bill had been delayed for weeks after senators rebelled over the Justice Department's proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" compensation package, which critics attacked as a "slush fund" that could allow people convicted over the 2021 attack on the US Capitol to receive taxpayer money.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers this week that the administration would not move forward with the fund. But Trump continued to praise it, calling it "beautiful" and saying he would have to "ask the lawyers" whether it was dead or merely paused.
That ambiguity pushed some Republicans to try to write the fund's demise into law.
"When you're explaining, you're losing. There's no way to explain the $1.776 (billion) fund. So the only way you can explain it is explain that you got rid of it," North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis told reporters.