Senate Republicans early Friday morning passed their $70 billion bill to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown through the remainder of his term.
The bill was passed despite an effort to add language to bar or restrict a federal $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that was aimed at compensating people victimized by the government, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) already told Congress was “dead” and would not be pursued.
The Trump administration had said the fund was meant to compensate those targeted by former presidential administrations for political reasons. But acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House subcommittee meeting earlier this month, “We’re not moving forward with the fund, period.”
The 52-to-47 vote sent the immigration measure to the House, which was expected to act on it next week, UPI rep0rted.
According to the New York Times’s coverage of the session:
It was a victory for the president and his party, who have been eager to spotlight their hard-line immigration stance — and Democrats’ opposition to it — in the middle of an election year when their control of Congress is at stake. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, was the only Republican to oppose the measure, joining all Democrats.
Despite Republicans being strongly unified around the immigration bill, it had become the possible vehicle for a GOP pushback to Trump’s request for some ballroom funding and the victimization fund, which some were concerned could be used to pay protestors and “rioters” who mobbed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Times and CNN also reported.
But after a series of unsuccessful votes to modify the bill, the Republican lawmakers’ use of a filibuster-proof budget bill prevailed over unified Democratic opposition.
The GOP employed the reconciliation bill tactic after Democrats refused to fund the illegal immigration crackdown without certain restrictions on the tactics and conduct of agents in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Those law enforcement agencies have been the target of highly organized protests and violence at federal facilities in recent months. Democrats also held up funding of other Department of Homeland Security (DHS) operations, which resulted in payless paydays for some federal workers in previous funding battles over ICE.
“We are here today only, only because Democrats refuse to appropriate a single dollar for our border and immigration law enforcement,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told the body.
The measure stalled on the floor Thursday as a small number of Republicans joined the proposed Democrat amendment on the anti-weaponization fund, but that proposal eventually failed 50 to 49.
Three Republicans facing reelection, Susan Collins (R-ME), Jon Husted (R-OH) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), had reportedly joined the Democrat effort.
All three came around to support the funding for the immigration measure on the final vote.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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