The US Senate has passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill.
Senators voted 52-47 to pass the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the end of Trump’s term, after Democrats had blocked the money for months.
The bill will now head to the House, which is expected to take it up next week.
The final vote came on Friday morning after Republicans narrowly defeated multiple attempts by members of both parties to add language to the bill that would permanently ban Trump’s settlement fund for allies who believe they’ve been politically persecuted.
The passage of the bill in the Senate is seen as a victory for the president and his party, who have been eager to pass it, and as a rebuke to Democrats’ opposition to it, in the middle of an election year when their control of Congress is at stake.
Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, was the only Republican to oppose the measure, joining Democrats.
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