The House on Tuesday narrowly passed Republicans’ nearly $70 billion budget reconciliation package to fund immigration enforcement agencies through fiscal year 2029.
The 214-212 vote was as close as it could be. California Rep. Kevin Kiley, an independent who caucuses with Republicans, joined with all Democrats in voting no.
The package now heads to President Trump’s desk. It provides $38.5 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion for Customs and Border Protection and an extra $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. That money is in addition to the more than $140 billion Republicans provided ICE and CBP in their party-line megabill last year.
A long and winding road: Tuesday’s vote caps a monthslong fight over funding for ICE and CBP that involved a record 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security earlier this year. Democrats balked at funding the department without reforms after the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown led to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens, in Minneapolis. Democrats demanded a series of changes, most notably a requirement that federal agents wear body cameras and get judicial warrants before property searches, but those negotiations broke down, leaving the two sides mired in a shutdown standoff.
“We believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the American people, not give ICE another $70 billion blank check so they can unleash brutality on American citizens and violently target law-abiding immigrant communities,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday.
In the end, lawmakers agreed to fund most of DHS, ending the shutdown on April 30, but they left out money for ICE and CBP. Republicans set out to fund those agencies via a party-line reconciliation package, which Trump said he wanted done by June 1.
Their plan got delayed by repeated clashes over other Trump administration priorities. A proposed $1 billion for the Secret Service and Trump’s White House ballroom ultimately got scrapped. A planned $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund announced by the Justice Department met with bipartisan opposition, but a push by some lawmakers to block or limit that fund as part of the reconciliation bill failed.
House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole said Tuesday that he backed the reconciliation bill but lamented the weakening of the normal appropriations process and the need to use budget reconciliation in this instance to fund ICE and CBP.
“I hope the months-long charade that led us to this moment serves as a reminder that no partisan fixation is worth shutting down the government, abandoning constitutional responsibilities, and forcing Congress into extraordinary measures simply to perform its most basic duties,” he said in a statement that took aim at Senate Democrats and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Why it matters: After weeks of infighting and delays, Republicans have succeeded in delivering funding for ICE and CBP beyond the end of Trump’s term, ensuring that those agencies won’t face further shutdown threats — and they did so without giving in to many of Democrats’ demands for reforms to the administration’s immigration policies and enforcement tactics, though DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told lawmakers that agents will now undergo more extensive training and are seeking judicial warrants before entering private homes.
The bottom line: The bill’s passage ends the annual appropriations process for the fiscal year that began back in October, more than eight months ago. Lawmakers are already working on funding bills for fiscal year 2027 — and Republicans are already eyeing plans for a third budget reconciliation bill that many doubt they will be able to pass.