WASHINGTON, United States, June 5, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - The US Senate on Friday 
approved $70 billion in funding for Donald Trump's hardline immigration 
crackdown, but only after a long day of votes on multiple amendments that 
highlighted Republican infighting over some of the president's other 
contentious policy proposals.

The bill would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border 
Patrol through the rest of Trump's term, handing the Republican leader a 
major victory on one of his signature issues after months of bitter fighting 
over the future of immigration enforcement.

It now heads to the House of Representatives, where Republican leaders hope 
to move it early next week to send it to Trump's desk.

The package follows a record partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland 
Security (DHS) earlier this year, when Democrats refused to support new money 
for immigration enforcement without restrictions on tactics such as raids in 
sensitive locations and the use of masks by officers.

Republicans rejected those demands, instead choosing to fund ICE and Border 
Patrol through the fast-track "budget reconciliation" process, which allows 
them to bypass Democratic opposition if they can keep their own members 
united.

The Senate vote came after an hours-long amendment marathon known in 
Washington as a "vote-a-rama," a chaotic process allowing lawmakers to force 
votes on politically sensitive issues before final passage.

For Trump, the process meant renewed scrutiny of controversies that have 
alarmed members of his own party, including a proposed "anti-weaponization" 
fund for allies who claim they were unfairly targeted by the government and 
$1 billion that had been earmarked for security around his planned White 
House ballroom.

The underlying immigration bill no longer included the ballroom money, but 
both issues became symbols of a broader unease among Republicans about 
defending Trump's priorities ahead of midterm elections expected to be 
dominated by voter concerns over the cost of living.

- Rebellion -

The bill had been delayed for weeks after senators rebelled over the Justice 
Department's proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" compensation package, 
which critics attacked as a "slush fund" that could allow people convicted 
over the 2021 attack on the US Capitol to receive taxpayer money.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers this week that the 
administration would not move forward with the fund. But Trump continued to 
praise it, calling it "beautiful" and saying he would have to "ask the 
lawyers" whether it was dead or merely paused.

That ambiguity pushed some Republicans to try to write the fund's demise into 
law.

"When you're explaining, you're losing. There's no way to explain the $1.776 
(billion) fund. So the only way you can explain it is explain that you got 
rid of it," North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis told reporters.

The amendment votes did little to derail Trump's agenda but showed the limits 
of party discipline, with multiple Republicans defecting on measures 
targeting the anti-weaponization fund, future ballroom funding and Trump's 
move to install a loyalist housing official atop US intelligence.

Democrats also used the process to try to redirect immigration enforcement 
money toward housing and other affordability concerns, arguing that 
Republicans were prioritizing Trump's deportation agenda over the cost of 
living.

And in what was seen as a separate rebuke of Trump policy, several 
Republicans also backed a Democratic effort to circumvent House leadership 
with a vote to impose new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine 
and provide $8 billion in military financing loans to Kyiv.

Republicans countered that the money was needed to restore immigration 
enforcement funding after the earlier DHS shutdown left the issue unresolved.

The earlier stopgap measure funded much of Homeland Security through 
September 30, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast 
Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Secret Service.

But it excluded ICE and Border Patrol, setting up the separate fight that 
ended with Friday's vote.

The result gives Trump a major legislative win on immigration while 
underscoring a recurring problem for Republican leaders: even with control of 
Congress, they must still manage internal resistance to the political baggage 
attached to some of the president's priorities.