Senate Passes Immigration Enforcement Funding Bill After $1.8B 'Slush Fund' Controversy Is Dropped

Here's the short version: the Senate just handed President Trump a major win on immigration enforcement — but it wasn't clean, and the story behind the bill is messier than the headline suggests.

Early Friday morning, after an exhausting 18-hour all-nighter on the Senate floor, Republicans passed a $70 billion bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol. The vote was 52-47 — almost entirely along party lines, with just one Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voting against it. The bill locks in funding for these agencies for the next three years, through the end of Trump's term, shielding them from future government shutdown fights.

So why did it take so long? Two words: slush fund.

Tucked into earlier versions of this bill was a $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization fund" — a pot of taxpayer money that the Trump administration planned to set up to pay out to people who claim they were politically targeted by the federal government. Critics, including a number of Republicans, called it exactly what it sounds like: a slush fund that could potentially pay Trump allies, political supporters, and even January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol. The fund actually traces back to a lawsuit Trump filed against his own government over the 2019 leak of his tax records, and was set to be resolved via a $1.8 billion out-of-court settlement.

That controversy nearly blew up the whole bill. Republican senators like Bill Cassidy, Thom Tillis, Susan Collins, and others publicly pushed back, demanding the fund be killed entirely or at least restricted by law. Democrats tried to use the chaos to force votes that would permanently ban the fund. None of those efforts succeeded — the GOP ultimately defeated every attempt to formally axe it, and passed the core immigration bill without any guardrails on the fund at all.

The White House's explanation? Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified earlier this week that the administration is dropping plans for the fund. But Trump himself muddied the waters on Wednesday when he told reporters he wasn't sure whether it was really gone — saying he "loves" the fund and thinks it's "so important." That's left taxpayers with nothing but a verbal promise and a lot of uncertainty.

So what does this mean for you? If you follow immigration policy, ICE operations are about to get a massive expansion — $38.2 billion goes directly to ICE, $26 billion to Customs and Border Protection. These agencies will be fully funded and operating without fear of shutdowns for the rest of Trump's presidency. And while the controversial fund wasn't officially blessed by Congress, it also wasn't officially killed. Democrats say Republicans left the door open for it to come back.

The bill now heads to the House, which could take it up as early as next week. If it passes there and Trump signs it, it becomes law — and the roughly $70 billion starts flowing.