Graham reveals GOP budget plan to fund ICE amid conservative pushback

Key Points:

• Senate Republicans, led by Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, unveiled a $140 billion budget resolution to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol over the next 3.5 years, focusing narrowly on immigration enforcement.
• The resolution allows Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security committees to increase the federal deficit by up to $70 billion each to support immigration operations, with the final bill expected to total between $70 billion and $80 billion.
• Senate Majority Leader John Thune emphasized the goal of securing unified Republican support for the bill, while some GOP members, including Sen. Ron Johnson, view reconciliation as the only viable path due to Democratic opposition.
• The budget plan faces internal GOP divisions, with some senators like Rand Paul opposing the high spending, and others like Sen. John Kennedy advocating for a broader reconciliation package addressing cost-of-living issues ahead of the midterm elections.
• House Republicans have withheld consideration of the Senate’s Department of Homeland Security reopening bill until reconciliation funding is finalized, prolonging the ongoing DHS shutdown and complicating legislative progress.