Senate Passes Party-Line Reconciliation Bill, Sidesteps Attempts to Kill ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Fund

The bill provides $70 billion for immigration and border agencies. The House plans to take it up next week.

John Thune

It took nearly 18 hours of voting, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune got the bill over the finish line. Bill Clark/AP

The Senate voted mostly along party lines to pass Republicans’ multibillion-dollar immigration enforcement package early Friday morning, after blocking multiple efforts to bar or limit President Donald Trump from establishing an “anti-weaponization” fund.

The measure was approved 52-47, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) siding with Democrats in opposition after a nearly 18-hour series of votes. The House is expected to take up the bill next week and send it to Trump’s desk, blowing past his June 1 deadline.

The bill would provide $70 billion to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, agencies that were left out of a bipartisan deal to reopen most of the Department of Homeland Security in April following the longest-ever shutdown of a government agency.