Republicans Release Sweeping Legislation to Keep ICE Funded Through End of Trump’s Term

Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees released their respective reconciliation bills Monday night, setting congressional Republicans up to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with billions of dollars for the next three years.

Senate Republicans’ budget reconciliation plan comes after Democrats refused to fund ICE and CBP for the fiscal year 2026, calling for meaningful reforms to be implemented affecting immigration enforcement agents following the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of ICE agents.  

Under Senate rules, reconciliation bills — meant for budgetary purposes — can pass with just a simple majority, not the 60 votes needed to advance most other legislation. That means Republicans have a pathway to pass this legislation even without Democratic support. 

Democrats’ demands triggered a historic Department of Homeland Security (DHS)-specific shutdown, which ended last week after 76 days, as Senate Democrats refused to vote to fund DHS without ICE and CBP reforms. After weeks of back and forth with the White House, and in the absence of any bipartisan deal for reforms, Senate Republicans and Democrats funded all of DHS without any money for ICE and CBP. Now, congressional Republicans are hoping to fill in that funding gap through a party line reconciliation package.

Because the legislation would fund immigration operations for three years, through the end of Trump’s term, experts have argued that they will deprive congressional Democrats of a key mechanism for oversight and accountability if the party retakes the House or Senate in 2026. Congress is meant to act as a check on the executive branch through its power to fund — or not fund — various agencies. 

The legislation totals nearly $72 billion, divided between two committees with jurisdiction over immigration enforcement: the Senate Judiciary Committee’s total is nearly $40 billion and the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s bill is $32.5 billion.

The Judiciary committee instructions include $30 billion be set aside for ICE and the rest distributed largely amongst CBP, the Homeland Security secretary’s office and the Justice Department. The Judiciary bill also includes $1 billion in Secret Service funding for “security adjustments and upgrades” at the White House to support “enhancements” for President Donald Trump’s ballroom.

The $1 billion is appropriated “for the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades, including within the perimeter fence of the White House compound to support enhancements by the United States Secret Service relating to the East Wing Modernization project,” the bill reads.

Meanwhile the Homeland Security Committee’s bill would provide more than $32.5 billion largely for agencies under CBP.

Senate Democrats pushed back on the reconciliation legislative text following the release of the texts.

“At a time when gas prices are rising every day due to Trump’s war of choice with Iran and families continue to struggle to buy groceries, Republicans are ignoring the needs of middle-class America and instead funneling money into Trump’s ballroom and throwing billions at two lawless agencies — agencies that are already sitting on over $100 billion in unspent funds,” Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said in a Monday night statement, referencing the vast sums already allotted for immigration enforcement under Trump, including through Republicans’ last reconciliation bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has previously indicated he is planning to bring the reconciliation package to the Senate floor the week of May 18.