Senate Republicans advance Trump’s $70 billion immigration package amid divisions

Senate Republicans managed to rally a united state to advance President Donald Trump’s $70 billion package, but divisions in the president’s plan were exposed after a day of votes.

Passage of a budget reconciliation package aimed at funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol for the next three and a half years closes a long, drawn-out chapter in the Senate that began during the longest shutdown in history.

It’s a point that Senate Republicans have tried to return to throughout the day, repeating that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats forced their hand after refusing to fund immigrant jobs without a raft of changes.

ZEN GOP REBES FAIL TO KILL TRUMP’S $2B FUND FOREVER.

“Democrats wouldn’t agree to anything, and in the end they walked away completely, probably because they thought it would help them have a problem in November,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, RS.D.

But the day, and the weeks that followed, were dominated by growing tensions between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration that threatened to derail the program altogether.

First, it was the infusion of billions of dollars in funding for security improvements in Trump’s territory, which was later withdrawn.

Then there was the announcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) that a fund of almost two billion dollars (two billion dollars) was introduced to allow people who feel targeted by the government to file a claim in the pot of taxpayers’ money.

GOP IMPROVES ICE FUNDING PACKAGE AFTER FORCING TRUMP’S $2B FUND TO RETREAT

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy questions National Institutes of Health Director Jayanta Bhattacharya during a hearing in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Feb. 3, 2026. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Several Senate Republicans were concerned that the money could be reached by Jan. 6, 2021, rioters convicted of assaulting the police.

Schumer and the Democrats leaned on that open wound and spent much of the race, a series of “vote-a-rama” votes trying to spell a permanent end to the fund, even though Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche vowed the administration would not pursue it.

“Do we believe that Donald Trump, who has lied to us day after day, we believe that he will be able to resist getting his fingers stuck in the slush bag where it will benefit him and his family? No, not at all,” said Schumer.

GOP LEVERAGES ICE FUNDING PACKAGE TO MAKE TRUMP’S $2B CONTEST FUND ‘NONE’

Many of the amendments pushed by Democrats have prompted Republicans to file strong re-election bids, Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, are politically challenged positions.

Republicans tried to kill it, too, causing tensions to rise on the Senate floor.

“It’s not that close,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.,. “I mean, I saw it bad. No one has been stabbed.”

However, the program almost came to an end because of the fund at the beginning of a series of marathon votes in which Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and others want to ensure that the GOP’s efforts to end the fund will get another vote.

“I just wanted to increase the chances of success,” Cassidy said of the delay.

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In the end, despite a dozen Republicans who voted for Sen. Thom Tillis’, RN.C., amendment, and X voted for Cassidy’s, all attempts to block future fund renewal bids have failed.

The ballroom came back into the picture when six Republicans joined with Senate Democrats to prevent construction of the building from moving forward without congressional approval.

Then there was an attempt by Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., for attaching the SAVE America Act to the reconciliation package, which met with Republican opposition and ultimately failed, too.

The package now heads to the House, where Republicans are expected to pass it by the end of the week.