House Adopts Budget to Unlock $70 Billion for Immigration Enforcement
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- The House narrowly passed a Republican budget plan to allocate an additional $70 billion for immigration enforcement through the remainder of President Trump's second term, overcoming Democratic opposition.
- This budget measure is key to reopening the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down for nearly 11 weeks due to funding lapses.
- The plan passed on a strict party-line vote of 215 to 211, enabling Republicans to pursue a special budget process exempt from Senate filibusters to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
- Democrats opposed funding the department without new restrictions on immigration agents, but Republicans rejected such conditions; a Senate deal allowed the spending measure to pass without funding or restrictions on immigration enforcement.
- Republicans aim to use budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate, to fund ICE and CBP and advance their immigration enforcement agenda.
