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Senate OKs $70B Immigration Bill 06/05 06:14
The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump's immigration
enforcement agencies early Friday, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to
an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald
Trump's immigration enforcement agencies early Friday, after weeks of delays
and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that
threatened to derail the bill.
Senators voted 52-47 to pass the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration
and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the
end of Trump's term, after Democrats have blocked the money for months. The
bill will now head to the House, which is expected to take it up next week.
The final vote came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans narrowly defeated
multiple attempts by members of both parties to add language to the bill that
would permanently ban Trump's settlement fund for allies who believe they've
been politically persecuted.
Republicans cleared the last major hurdle overnight when they defeated an
amendment proposed by one of their own members, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy,
that would have redirected payments from the settlement to members of law
enforcement who were injured when a mob of Trump supporters seeking to overturn
his 2020 presidential election loss attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The amendments were a test of party unity that complicated what should have
been an easy vote for Republicans who wanted to keep the focus on immigration
enforcement in an election year. Instead, they spent almost a full day haggling
among themselves over whether to block the settlement fund, even after acting
Attorney General Todd Blanche had said earlier this week that it would not go
forward.
"This would have been done several hours ago if we weren't having to deal
with some of the issues around the fund," Senate Majority Leader John Thune,
R-S.D., said shortly before midnight.
Thune himself has criticized the fund, which was part of a settlement that
resolves Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns and
has angered many of his GOP colleagues. But he has been pushing GOP senators
for weeks to keep the bill focused on the funding for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and Border Patrol and to avoid adding new provisions that could
complicate its passage in the House.
Still, a group of Republican senators pushed all day and into the night to
block the fund's payouts through legislation. That effort came after Trump, who
has been at odds with the Senate in recent weeks, raised new doubts about the
fund's future on Wednesday -- just after the Senate had voted to start debate
on the bill -- when he told reporters that it is "very important" and said "I
don't know" whether it is dead or on hold.
Senators push back multiple attempts to ban settlement fund
The first vote on Thursday morning, a Democratic effort to ban the
settlement fund, was held open for several hours while Cassidy and two other
Republican senators decided whether to support it. The Democratic motion was
narrowly defeated when Cassidy eventually voted against it and the two other
senators -- Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, both of whom are up
for reelection this year -- voted for it.
The Senate then rejected a second amendment from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis
of North Carolina that would also have banned the settlement fund but would
have moved the money to a separate anti-fraud fund at the Department of
Justice. Most Democrats voted against the amendment, guaranteeing its defeat,
but more than 10 Republicans supported it.
Tillis said the fund is a political liability for the party.
"If Blanche says this is largely inoperative, why not use this moment to
codify that?" Tillis said. "Otherwise, you're exposing every one of our members
who are in cycle to having to deal with this between today and Election Day,
and that makes no sense for something that the DOJ says they're not moving
forward with."
Cassidy's amendment to compensate the injured police officers was a pointed
rebuke, as payouts from Trump's fund could have potentially gone to Trump
supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. Cassidy lost
reelection last month after Trump endorsed a primary opponent.
He said that, despite Blanche's comments, the fund is still part of an
active settlement and "absolutely can be used."
The Senate rejected several other Democratic efforts to try to block or
limit the fund, including amendments to ban payments to Jan. 6 defendants who
injured law enforcement officers.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans are now
"leaving taxpayers to rely on nothing more than a promise from Donald Trump's
personal fixer. That is not accountability. That is a permission slip."
ICE and Border Patrol money has been delayed for months
Enactment of the bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol would end the
blockade by Democrats who demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of
two protesters by federal agents in January.
Senate Republicans used a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the
filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it
took weeks to get the bill to the Senate floor as Republicans navigated various
obstacles to passage created by Trump and the White House -- including a $1
billion proposal for White House security and Trump's ballroom that they
eventually scrapped and the fierce bipartisan backlash to the settlement fund.
Democrats say any funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security
should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better
identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among
other asks.
After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump
agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated
from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations
went nowhere, and the department funding lapsed in mid-February with no
agreement on changes to the Trump administration's immigration enforcement
tactics.
Congress eventually funded the rest of DHS at the end of April with
Democratic support, but ICE and Border Patrol have remained without regular
funding.
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