House Passes $70 Billion Immigration Enforcement Bill, Sending It to President Trump

The House on Tuesday narrowly passed Republicans’ $70 billion immigration enforcement bill, voting 214 to 212 along party lines with every Democrat opposed, clearing it for President Trump’s signature.

“United States President Donald Trump has signed into law a $70bn funding bill for immigration enforcement, capping a months-long standoff with Democrats after the killing of two US citizens”

Al Jazeera

The measure was designed to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through the remainder of Trump’s term, after Democrats refused to fund the agencies unless changes were made following the fatal shooting of two Americans by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.

Al Jazeera

In a statement, Representative Jodey C. Arrington of Texas said, “We were sent here by the American people who gave President Trump an overwhelming victory,” and framed the vote as restoring “the rule of law and to put the American people’s safety and security first.”

The New York Times also tied the legislative push to Republicans’ effort to steer around unified Democratic opposition and send the bill to Trump, while the House action capped a “tempestuous and dysfunctional journey” to fund the agencies.

President Donald Trump signed the $70bn Secure America Act on Wednesday in an Oval Office ceremony, providing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol for at least the remainder of his term.

The legislation allocates $38bn to ICE, $26bn to Customs and Border Protection, and $5bn more to the Department of Homeland Security through September 2029, and both ICE and CBP fall under DHS.

AP News

Trump accused Democrats of trying to block DHS funding, saying, “Congressional Democrats tried to block all funding for the Department of Homeland Security in a reprehensible attempt to throw open the borders of the United States of America.”

Democrats condemned the bill’s passage, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries saying, “Republicans have now come back for more, to give ICE and Donald Trump’s violent mass deportation machine another $70bn blank check, with no oversight, no accountability and no guardrails.”

The signing ended a months-long funding impasse that began after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January during federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, and Democrats had demanded changes to immigration enforcement after the shootings.

The Washington Post said the House’s $70 billion decision “has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to pursue his mass deportation agenda for the rest of his term,” and described ICE and CBP as having “free rein through fiscal year 2029” to build detention capacity and purchase surveillance and screening technology.

The Post also quoted John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director in the Obama administration, saying Republicans “are doing this because they do not want Dems to have the ability to influence ICE operations for the remainder of Trump’s term.”

In response to the new law, immigrant rights nonprofit New York Immigration Coalition president Murad Awawdeh condemned it as “This taxpayer-funded windfall is built on the false premise that scapegoating and targeting immigrants will improve public safety or improve the lives of millions of Americans.”