House Republicans pushed a $70 billion immigration enforcement package through the House on Tuesday, passing the Secure America Act in a tight 214-212 vote and sending it to Donald Trump for his signature.
The bill would give $38 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $26 billion to Customs and Border Protection and another $5 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, with the money running through September 2029. One Republican-aligned independent, Kevin Kiley, joined all Democrats in voting no.
The vote ended a months-long fight over whether to keep money flowing to the agencies at the center of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants. Democrats had announced a blockade of funding for those agencies in January after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis during an intensive campaign billed as rooting out undocumented immigrants, and the dispute later helped trigger a 75-day shutdown of DHS from mid-February until the end of April.
The department reopened after Democrats agreed to back a broader spending measure that covered DHS operations except ICE and CBP, but the deeper fight over immigration enforcement money never went away. The Senate approved the measure last week, setting up Tuesday’s House vote as the final legislative test before the bill could reach the White House.
Democrats cast the package as a blank check for immigration raids and detention. Hakeem Jeffries said it would waste $70 billion in taxpayer money to give ICE funding without guardrails, oversight or accountability. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise answered that a yes vote meant backing border security and law enforcement, arguing that lawmakers voting no were voting to defund police and the officers who risk their lives to keep communities safe.
Republicans also defeated a Democratic effort shortly before passage that would have barred the government from issuing financial settlements to certain people convicted of wrongdoing, underscoring how little room there was left for compromise. The bill now awaits Trump’s signature, and once he signs it, ICE, CBP and DHS will have a funded runway that stretches well beyond the current budget fights in Washington.
