After weeks of negotiations, the Senate early this Friday approved a bill to inject some 70 billion more dollars into U.S. immigration agencies over the next three years, until the end of Donald Trump’s term. With 52 votes in favor and 47 against, the Republican bloc voted united, and only Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined the Democrats to oppose the package. The approval was achieved around five in the morning, after a marathon session that began on Thursday. The bill now passes to the House of Representatives, where Republicans have a majority and it is expected to pass without problems.
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The Republican president thus scores a victory after his latest proposals had kept the bill blocked due to opposition he encountered within his own party. In an unprecedented reaction in Trump’s second term, where the party has closed ranks around him, several senators rebelled against the proposal to create a $1.776 billion compensation fund that Trump announced to compensate his allies who were allegedly unfairly treated by the Joe Biden Administration. Among them, it was presumed to include those convicted for the January 6, 2021, Capitol assault, whom the president pardoned immediately after beginning his second presidency.
“This would have been resolved several hours ago if we hadn’t had to deal with some issues related to the fund,” declared Senate Majority Leader, Republican John Thune (South Dakota), shortly before midnight.
Another point of friction among Republicans was Trump’s insistence on allocating $1 billion in federal funds for his project of a ballroom in the White House.
Nevertheless, in the end, although some Republicans disagreed with the president on these points during the voting hours that extended into Friday morning, the majority set aside their reservations to push through the new legislation.
“Tonight, Senate Republicans passed a corrupt bill that makes their priorities painfully clear: more money for Donald Trump, more power for Donald Trump, and nothing to reduce costs for working families,” declared Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate.
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To pass the bill without Democratic support, Republicans used a maneuver known as a reconciliation bill, which allows an unlimited number of amendments to be introduced. None of those presented by Democrats were approved. One of them proposed establishing in the law the prohibition of creating Trump’s compensation fund. Although the Department of Justice had already rejected the idea, senators refused to enshrine it in law.
Nor did they support the Democratic amendments that proposed reducing Medicaid and childcare costs, nor reforms to immigration agencies. The latter was the main reason why Democrats refused to approve the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) budget for more than two months, leading to the longest government shutdown in history. Finally, the budget was approved without including funds for ICE and Border Patrol, which were authorized this Friday. Democrats have opposed injecting more money without reforms to immigration agencies in view of the abuses committed by their agents in the deportation campaign initiated by the Trump Administration.
The biggest revolt by lawmakers occurred after Operation Metro Surge, launched in Minneapolis late last year, in which ICE and Border Patrol agents used aggressive methods, such as firing tear gas and pepper balls at protesters who opposed their raids. In January, U.S. citizens Renée Good and Alex Pretti were shot dead by immigration agents, causing widespread outrage. Democrats then demanded reforms in the agencies as a condition for approving more funding. Among other demands, they asked that agents not be allowed to cover their faces with masks, carry identification, and require judicial warrants to enter homes.
The $70 billion they will receive with the new law is in addition to the $170 billion that immigration agencies received with the approval of the tax law called Big Beautiful Bill, passed by Congress in July last year. Part of the money will be allocated to increasing beds in ICE detention centers, where migrants are overcrowded and report deplorable conditions.
In a memo sent Thursday to agency employees and reviewed by The Washington Post, acting director David Venturella reported that ICE is eliminating the requirement to report deaths occurring within 30 days after the release of individuals from its custody. “ICE resumes the usual practice of reporting deaths that occur while a person is in agency custody,” Venturella wrote in the memo. The Joe Biden Administration adopted this policy to review deaths that occurred as a result of treatment received in detention centers. In the first five months of this year, 18 deaths have occurred in ICE custody. That figure is on track to exceed last year’s total of at least 30 deaths, the highest figure in two decades.
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