House to vote on $70 billion immigration enforcement bill

The House is set to vote Tuesday on a $70 billion Republican bill to fund federal immigration enforcement agencies through the rest of President Trump’s term, a step that could end a months-long stalemate over money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.

The measure, called the Secure America Act, cleared the Senate early Friday after weeks of delays and is expected to pass the House along party lines if Republican leaders can keep their narrow majority united. The bill would allocate $38 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion to Customs and Border Protection and $5 billion more to the Department of Homeland Security, The Guardian reported.

House lawmakers are scheduled to take a procedural vote around 1:30 p.m., with final passage expected after 4:30 p.m. if the earlier vote succeeds. The House Rules Committee met Monday afternoon to prepare the bill for floor debate after GOP leaders postponed a vote that had initially been expected late last week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that he expected the legislation to pass, while acknowledging that attendance during primary season “is a real challenge” and that Republicans have little room for defections.

“We have to fund border enforcement and immigration enforcement, and everybody here knows that, so they’re going to have to put their personal preferences aside to get the job done,” Johnson said.

One Republican-aligned lawmaker has already said he will oppose the bill. Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California independent who caucuses with Republicans, said he has “very strong concerns” about the “strictly party-line process” and wanted to see “significant bipartisan reforms to interior immigration enforcement.”

Democrats are expected to oppose the measure. “House Democrats will be a hard no on the reckless Republican budget reconciliation bill this week,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Monday.

Democrats have refused to fund ICE and Border Patrol without reforms, CBS News reported. The Guardian reported that Democrats announced a blockade of funding for the agencies in January after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis amid a crackdown on undocumented immigrants.

The funding package has been stalled for weeks. Both chambers had hoped to send it to Trump by Memorial Day to meet his June 1 deadline, but the effort was slowed by disputes over two administration priorities: a $1 billion request tied to security for a massive White House ballroom project and a nearly $1.8 billion Justice Department fund to pay people who say they were politically persecuted.

The ballroom-related funding was ultimately stripped from the bill. The Guardian reported that Senate Republicans agreed to remove it after the Senate parliamentarian ruled it could not be included if the measure was to advance through budget reconciliation, the procedure Republicans are using to bypass the 60-vote Senate filibuster threshold and pass fiscal legislation by a simple majority.

The Justice Department said it would no longer pursue the so-called “anti-weaponization” fund, but some Republicans remained skeptical. The Guardian reported that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House committee last week the proposal was dead, while Trump declined to rule out its creation in an interview broadcast Sunday.

During a marathon Senate voting session that began Thursday morning and stretched into early Friday, several amendments to formally bar such payouts were defeated. A small group of Senate Republicans had sought a bipartisan compromise on an amendment blocking the fund, The Guardian reported, but did not succeed.

If the House passes the bill Tuesday, it would resolve a long-running funding fight over the agencies central to Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda.