Body
Senate Republicans abruptly left Washington on Thursday without voting on a roughly $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies, putting the measure’s timeline into limbo and sharpening divisions inside the GOP over a Justice Department settlement announced this week. The impasse centered on whether the bill would try to limit a $1.776 billion settlement fund that is intended to compensate Trump allies who say they were politically prosecuted.
Republicans said the settlement and White House handling of it have complicated their efforts to move the immigration enforcement package. A tense meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche early Thursday heightened senators’ frustration, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said afterward. Thune described Blanche as having “an appreciation for the depth of feeling” among GOP senators as the meeting ended.
Within hours, Republican leaders announced they would not vote on the immigration enforcement measure until they returned from a Memorial Day recess during the week of June 1, a deadline Trump imposed for action. The setback underscored how procedural timing, party unity and Trump’s broader political pressure have collided in the Senate.
The conflict has taken on a distinctly personal and political dimension for some Republicans, who have objected to the idea of taxpayer-backed payments linked to the ballroom and to the settlement itself. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell called the settlement “utterly stupid, morally wrong,” saying in a statement that “The nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops?”
The bill’s path also reflects a broader clash over affordability and immigration enforcement. Democrats have criticized Republicans for pushing funds they say would benefit Trump’s ballroom while voters are focused on costs for essentials like health care and housing, and some Republicans have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump.
Thune also argued the White House should have consulted Congress before announcing the settlement, saying it made “everything way harder than it should be.” He added that Trump’s endorsement politics further complicated lawmakers’ ability to separate the legislative fight from wider political developments, telling reporters, “I think it’s hard to divorce anything that happens here from what’s happening in the political atmosphere around us.” He continued, “There is a political component to everything we do around here.”
The dispute has also been shaped by Republicans’ earlier retreat from part of the security package tied to the White House complex and Trump’s ballroom, after backlash from within their own conference and after parliamentary rulings affected the strategy. MSI previously reported that the Senate parliamentarian blocked a $1 billion White House security add-on tied to the ballroom in a prior package covering the parliamentarian’s decision.
Republican lawmakers’ frustration has grown further as the White House and Trump have weighed in on party politics, including Trump’s Tuesday endorsement of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in next week’s primary runoff against Sen. John Cornyn. While many senators have remained loyal to Trump on many issues, some have privately said the endorsement could affect their November prospects, with Cornyn viewed by some as the stronger candidate.
The settlement fund became a central complication after Democrats indicated they would force votes to block it or restrict payments. Republicans acknowledged the tensions as part of a budget maneuver that allows a long series of amendment votes, with Democrats seeking to use that process to curtail the fund.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the senators left Washington that, in his view, the only way for Republicans to “get out of this box” was to stop backing the settlement fund and to stop pushing the ballroom, and then to join Democrats in seeking efforts to lower Americans’ costs. GOP senators, meanwhile, discussed their own last-minute additions to try to limit the fallout from the fund if Democrats’ amendments advanced, with Sen. Rick Scott saying, “I think there’s reasonable limitations that can be put on it.”
The funding fight has also involved other security money and negotiations over immigration enforcement agencies. Under the Secret Service’s request described by the bill’s supporters, about $220 million would go to security improvements related to the ballroom, while the rest would support a new screening center for visitors and additional security measures. After it became clear Republicans would abandon that proposal, Trump told reporters at the White House that “I don’t need money for the ballroom,” and he said the White House “won’t be a very secure place” if Congress does not approve the request.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., characterized the broader security push as a “bad idea,” arguing the bill should not have included other security improvements because it amounted to “giving everybody the ‘billion-dollar ballroom.’” Still, the bill’s remaining components include funding for ICE and Border Patrol, a part Democrats have blocked for months in protest of the administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown.
With negotiations yielding little progress, Republicans have used reconciliation to fund the agencies through the end of Trump’s term without Democratic support. That approach still requires sign-off from the parliamentarian and Republican unity, and GOP lawmakers have signaled they want the focus to remain on immigration enforcement rather than additional items. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said the Senate’s responsibility should be to focus on funding ICE and Border Patrol, adding that “When other extraneous things get in the middle of it, it makes it more difficult.”