House passes $70 billion immigration enforcement funding

WASHINGTON - The House on Tuesday narrowly passed a $70 billion budget package ending a four-month lapse in funding for immigration enforcement agencies, capping a fight that exposed tensions between President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans.

The package will now head to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.

The House voted 214-212 to pass the bill along party lines after Republicans quickly overcame a delay earlier in the day during the vote on a procedural measure to move forward on the package.

The bill funds two federal agencies: Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The money would fund the agencies through the end of Trump’s term without going through the annual appropriations process, an unusual move that has allowed Republicans to avoid compromising with Democrats.

The bill’s passage is the culmination of a months-long fight over government funding triggered by the killing of Alex Pretti and Renée Good by federal agents in Minneapolis in January during protests against the administration’s deportation operations there.

Democrats in Congress had refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE and CBP, unless Republicans agreed to impose new restrictions on federal agents. Those restrictions never came to pass.

That measure would codify into law some of Trump’s immigration priorities.

The Senate passed the funding bill Friday, sending the measure to the House after weeks of delays driven by Republican disputes over issues largely unrelated to immigration funding — including money for security tied to Trump’s ballroom project and the Justice Department’s fund for those who claim they were wrongly prosecuted.

While Congress funded the rest of the Department of Homeland Security through September, Republicans opted to use the budget reconciliation process to fund ICE and CBP through fiscal year 2029. The process allows Republicans to advance the measure with a simple majority in the Senate, avoiding the filibuster and forgoing Democratic support.

The legislation is particularly unusual because it is the first time reconciliation is being used to bypass the normal annual appropriations process and fund government agencies for multiple years in an effort to avoid future shutdowns. (Source: The Washington Post)