Trump ‘anti-weaponisation’ fund dominates Senate debate on ICE funding Bill

WASHINGTON – The US Senate laboured over a US$70 billion (S$90 billion) immigration enforcement Bill late into the night on June 4, as Republicans rejected more than a dozen Democratic amendments, including attempts to kill a US$1.8 billion “anti-weaponisation” fund that US President Donald Trump has sought.

The US$70 billion would help pay for Trump’s controversial migrant deportation crackdown over the next three years and would augment about US$100 billion in unspent Department of Homeland Security law enforcement money enacted in 2025 by Republicans, who control Congress.

If the Senate manages to pass the new funding, the House of Representatives could debate it as soon as next week.

Lawmakers began voting on amendments to the immigration Bill in a “vote-a-rama” session early on June 4 that was expected to end in a vote on the underlying measure by June 5.

An initial move by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to kill what Democrats call a “slush fund” for Trump’s allies brought the session to a largely procedural halt for hours after Republican Senator Susan Collins voted for the motion.

She was later joined by fellow Republicans Jon Husted and Dan Sullivan.

“It’s heinous and it won’t die until we permanently ban it by law,” Schumer said of the US$1.776 billion fund in a Senate floor speech.

His measure failed in a 50-49 vote but exposed the political turmoil among rank-and-file Senate Republicans. Some of them sought their own amendments to eliminate the fund permanently, five months before the November midterm elections. Collins, Husted and Sullivan all face competitive races for reelection at a time when Trump’s approval rating is down, even among Republicans.

The fund, which critics say would allow Trump to use taxpayer dollars to compensate his political allies, has already been put on hold by the White House and Justice Department over fierce opposition from Senate Republicans.

But on June 3, Trump declined to say whether the fund had actually been terminated, telling reporters: “I love it. I think it’s so important.”

Republican Senator Thom Tillis, who opposed Schumer’s motion, told reporters he would not support passage of the funding Bill without a Republican amendment vote to codify acting Attorney-General Todd Blanche’s congressional testimony that the administration was abandoning the fund.

Tillis argued that failing to do so would place a burden on congressional Republicans up for re-election in November who are worried about a voter backlash to the fund.

Nearly all of the Bill’s US$70 billion would go to DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agencies that are carrying out the Trump administration’s vigorous deportations throughout the United States.

Tillis later offered his own amendment to reallocate the Trump fund’s resources to fraud-enforcement operations. It failed in an 84-15 vote while garnering support from 12 Republicans.

Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who proposed his own amendment to end the fund, joined Democratic Senator Cory Booker in a friend-of-the-court brief urging US District Judge Leonie Brinkema to maintain the block on Trump’s fund that she imposed last week.

They argued the fund “presents an immediate and dire threat to our constitutional order and the authority of Congress”.

There were concerns that some House Republicans could oppose the measure if it contains language to kill Trump’s fund.

A number of recent actions by Trump have prompted open criticism from some Republicans, from seeking US$1 billion in taxpayer funding for a White House ballroom and security upgrades to his decision to nominate Blanche as attorney-general and name political ally Bill Pulte as US intelligence chief.

Cassidy, who lost his primary in May to two Trump-aligned challengers in Louisiana, has proposed a series of amendments, including one to nullify an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service protecting Trump from tax audits. REUTERS