WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump significantly bolstered funding for immigration enforcement Wednesday when he signed into law a nearly $70 billion package that will keep key federal agencies operating without any new restrictions.
Democrats pressed for guardrails after immigration officers shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. But when talks broke down, Republican lawmakers drafted their own bill without any additional constraints.
“The bill provides crucial funding for domestic law enforcement investigations and combating child exploitation, continuing our work to restore law and order across our nation, and to protect America’s youth,” Trump said during an Oval Office event.
The measure moved through Congress this month with nearly every Republican voting to approve the additional spending, which will last through September 2029.
Democratic lawmakers argued immigration officers should adhere to the standards other federal law enforcement agencies follow, like wearing body cameras, getting a warrant from a judge before entering someone’s home and identifying themselves by removing masks.
Republican leaders said during talks they were open to instituting limitations on how immigration officers behave, but opted not to include any curbs in their party-line bill.
ICE, CBP funded
The law will provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement with another $38.53 billion. Customs and Border Protection will receive an additional $26.02 billion and the secretary of Homeland Security will be given $5 billion more in funding.
The money is in addition to the $170 billion Republicans included in their “big, beautiful” law, as well as the funding approved in the annual DHS appropriations package.
Nearly every Republican in the House voted to approve the measure, though New Jersey Rep. Thomas H. Kean, Jr., who has been absent due to an undisclosed illness, and South Carolina Reps. Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, who were competing in their state’s gubernatorial primary, missed the vote.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the sole Republican to vote against approving the legislation in that chamber, writing in a statement negotiators should have worked out a bipartisan solution in the annual funding bill instead of using the complex budget reconciliation process to get around procedural votes that would otherwise have required the support of 60 senators.
“By choosing to appropriate funding for three fiscal years instead of one, this measure weakens the normal budgeting process and sets another precedent for avoiding it when we find ourselves in disagreement,” she wrote. “In doing so, it reduces Congress’ ability to apply reasonable checks on immigration policy for the remainder of this administration and into the next.”
Murkowski added that she would have voted for the package had it “provided immigration funding for one year, included clear restrictions on what those funds can be used for, and eliminated any potential for taxpayer dollars to be allocated to the administration’s brazen ‘anti-weaponization’ fund.”
That $1.776 billion account would have paid restitution to people who believe they were wrongly prosecuted by the Justice Department. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before Congress the administration wasn’t planning to proceed with that proposal after Republicans on Capitol Hill voiced opposition.
Trump, however, hasn’t completely retracted his support for the fund, saying in an NBC News interview this weekend that he and other Republicans believe it “is a great idea.”
“You have to get it approved,” he said. “If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t get it approved, I’d be disappointed.”
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