U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., speaks to reporters in the basement of the Capitol building on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday approved three years of funding for immigration enforcement without recent guidance on how federal officials operate.
The 214-212 vote sent the nearly $70 billion package to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign the measure. Republican Senators approved The bill passed earlier this month, with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski the only GOP member to oppose it.
California independent Rep. Kevin Kiley, who caucuses with Republicans, voted “no,” as did Democrats.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., argued that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol need additional funding so they can deport anyone in the country without proper authorization.
“They want you to think that everyone is just coming here to achieve the American dream,” he said. “We have a legal way to do this.”
Scalise then read a list of Americans killed by people who were in the United States without legal status.
“This is not a hypothesis, it has happened over and over again,” he said.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he opposed Republicans’ plans to “give ICE a blank check without any guardrails, oversight or accountability.”
“Donald Trump promised America that he would target violent criminals who are here illegally, but instead taxpayer dollars are being used by ICE and its violent mass deportation machine to attack and brutalize American citizens, in some cases killing them,” he said.
Jeffries argued that “immigration enforcement should be fair, just and humane” and that ICE “must conduct itself to the same standards” that other law enforcement agencies follow.
The funds will cover three years
The legislation will provide $38.53 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26.02 billion for Customs and Border Protection, and $5 billion for the Secretary of Homeland Security.
The funding, which runs through September 2029, is in addition to the $170 billion given to Republicans provided in their “big, beautiful” law. According to the Democrats, around $100 billion of that has not yet been spent.
Republicans chose not to impose recent restrictions on how federal immigration authorities operate or provide additional funding for oversight, even though officials killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January.
These shootings prompted Democrats in Congress to do so are calling for recent restrictions to officials, leading to weeks of bipartisan negotiations during a 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.
This standoff ended the following April The legislature agreed Annual DHS budget proposal with no funding for ICE or Border Patrol. Republicans had to strip those provisions to advance the legislation through procedural votes in the Senate, which requires support from at least 60 lawmakers.
A recent way
Republican leaders then appealed the intricate process of budget reconciliation Provide three years of funding to ICE, CBP, and the Secretary of DHS without requiring changes to how they operate.
The special legislative route allows bills to pass through the Senate with a straightforward majority as long as they follow certain rules.
Senate Republicans had originally earmarked $1.46 billion for several Justice Department programs and $1 billion for the Secret Service to make security improvements related to the recent White House Ballroom, also known as the White House Ballroom, but later eliminated it East wing modernization project.
Funding for ICE, CBP and the DHS secretary paves the way for the Trump administration to continue its immigration crackdown just months before the scheduled end of his second term.
