Border czar Tom Homan details the escalated crackdown on illegal immigration, criticizing New York City's anti-ICE policies implemented by Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Governor Kathy Hochul.
Republicans’ sweeping immigration enforcement. border security package cleared the House on Tuesday, ending a months-long standoff with Democrats over funding PresidentDonald Trump'simmigration crackdown agenda.
The $70 billion immigration enforcement measure passed 214-212 over the fierce objections of Democrats, who unanimously voted against the package. Rep. Kevin Kiley, I-Calif., an independent who caucuses with Republicans, also joined Democrats in opposing the measure.
Meanwhile, every GOP lawmaker present voted for the Senate-passed legislation, which funds Immigration. Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through fiscal year 2029.
Tuesday's vote is a major victory for House SpeakerMike Johnson,R-La. who could spare just a handful of defections given Republicans’ fragile majority.
President Donald Trump during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. D.C., on June 3, 2026.(Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
TRUMP ON VERGE OF SECURING $70B ICE FUNDING VICTORY AFTER HOUSE CLEARS HURDLE
"By funding it for three years. we've taken away their ability to cut that funding or to take hostage the funding for the remainder of the Trump administration," Johnson said following the vote, referring to Democrats. "It was Republicans. Republicans alone who did the responsible thing and funded these critically important agencies at this critical time."
The measure now heads to Trump’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.
The GOP-authored bill, known as the Secure America Act, provides $38 billion for ICE. a $26 billion infusion for the Border Patrol. It would also create a $5 billion funding pool to be controlled by Homeland Security SecretaryMarkwayne Mullin.
Kiley, who recently switched his party affiliation to independent, said he opposed the bill because it lacked reforms to immigration enforcement. bypassed the traditional appropriations process, which requires some buy-in from Democrats.
"The idea that we're actually going to now weaken one of the few pillars of sanity we have, which is the annual bipartisan appropriations process,. set this precedent that when you don't reach bipartisan agreement, you can just do an end run around it … that's hugely problematic to me," the California lawmaker told reporters.
"The whole reason I became an independent is because I think that extreme partisanship here has completely run amok,. it's doing real damage to the country," he added.
Republican leaders argued they were forced to use the partisanbudget reconciliation processafter Democrats repeatedly blocked Homeland Security funding bills. The legislative tool allowed GOP leadership to steer around Democrats’ opposition. pass the legislation at a simple majority threshold in the upper chamber.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 2026.(Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg)
DEMOCRAT WHO BROKE WITH PARTY SAYS HIS DHS FUNDING VOTE A 'MISTAKE' AFTER 2ND MINNEAPOLIS ICE SHOOTING
"This is a piece that Democrats have said they don't want to fund because they want open borders," House Majority LeaderSteve Scalise,R-La. said Tuesday. "They have made it crystal clear, the Democrat Party in Washington, that they want to go back to open borders. And we're not going to do that."
For months, Democratic lawmakers refused to fund ICE and the Border Patrol unless it was paired with policy reforms. The party’s hardball tactics sparked the longestgovernment shutdownin history. which largely ended after Trump signed a partial DHS bill in April.
Top Democrats initially took a hard turn against new ICE funding beginning in January after two Americans were killed by federal law enforcement officers during the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge in Minneapolis.
Their message stayed largely the same heading into Tuesday's vote.
"Republicans are pouring your hard-earned tax dollars into an agency that has brutalized. terrorized communities and even killed American citizens," House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said Tuesday. "Republican leadership likes to talk a lot about common sense,. where is the common sense in giving this federal agency essentially unlimited funds without a single reform in place?"
House Democratic leadership urged their members to vote against the package.(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)
Though Republicans stayed largely united in the ICE funding fight. some conservative lawmakers argued the spending measure should be paired with policy reforms codifying some of the president's executive orders.
Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas,. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., were among the GOP lawmakers who withheld their support for the package during a procedural test vote earlier on Tuesday. Johnson promised the conservative group a vote on border security legislation in the coming weeks. prompting holdouts to support the measure's advancement, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
"We had some good conversations about moving the important elements of H.R. 2 sometime here in the next few weeks, hopefully before July 4th," Roy told reporters, referring to a sweeping Republican-authored immigration. border security bill. "We're looking forward to getting that done."
The budget reconciliation bill’s passage comes after congressional Republicans failed to meet aJune 1 deadline set by Trumpto send the measure to his desk.
The quick timeline fell apart after a cohort ofRepublicans in both chambers revoltedagainst Trump’s roughly $2 billion "anti-weaponization fund." Some GOP lawmakers. including moderate Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., have since proposed legislation that would curtail the president’s authority to establish the fund.
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