Senate Passes $70B ICE and Border Patrol Bill, 52–47. A $1.776 Billion White House “Slush Fund” Nearly Sank It. McConnell Called It “Utterly Stupid.”

The Senate passed a $70 billion immigration enforcement funding bill on June 5, 2026, 52–47, after an 18-hour overnight vote-a-rama that exposed a GOP civil war over a Justice Department “anti-weaponization fund” the White House announced without consulting Senate leadership. Mitch McConnell called it “utterly stupid, morally wrong.” Every Democrat voted no. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote no on final passage. The bill now heads to the House.

• $70Btotal over three years — $38.2B for ICE (expanded enforcement, detention, transportation, tech, 287(g) agreements), $26B for CBP (border personnel, surveillance, screenings), ~$5B for DHS operations. Passed via reconciliation to bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
• 52–47final vote. Every Republican except Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) voted yes. Every Democrat voted no. Passed just before 5 a.m. on June 5, 2026 after 18 hours of continuous floor votes.
• $1.776B— the DOJ 'anti-weaponization fund' that almost killed the bill. Announced without Senate Republican input, funded from the DOJ judgment fund, theoretically payable to Jan. 6 defendants and others who claimed Biden-era persecution. McConnell: 'the nation's top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops.'
• 0provisions banning the DOJ fund survived floor votes — the Tillis amendment failed 15–84, the Cassidy amendment failed 52–47 (needed 60). The fund was killed in practice by Acting AG Todd Blanche's public testimony and a federal court injunction, not by this bill.

The bill funds ICE and CBP through the remainder of the Trump term. It was advanced under Senate reconciliation rules specifically to bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold Democrats have used to block immigration enforcement spending in prior Congresses. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) described it simply: “It’s a simple bill. It will do nothing more than fund Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for three years.”

• ICE: $38.2 billion — expanded enforcement operations, personnel, detention and removal transportation, technology upgrades, facility improvements, 287(g) agreements with state and local law enforcement, and Homeland Security Investigations funding.
• CBP: $26 billion — Border Patrol personnel hiring and equipment, surveillance technology, inspection capabilities, screenings of unaccompanied minors, support for DHS border mission.
• DHS: ~$5 billion — broader operational support, including Homeland Security and Judiciary reconciliation elements.

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The Justice Department — without coordinating with Senate Republican leadership — announced a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” drawn from the DOJ judgment fund: a perpetual appropriation DOJ uses to settle cases. The fund was ostensibly intended to provide “formal apologies and monetary relief” to people who claimed the federal government had been weaponized against them under Biden. The White House framed it as redress for Biden-era political prosecution.

Senate Republicans immediately recognized the problem: January 6 defendants who had been convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers would be eligible. Multiple senators who are up for re-election in 2026 — including Sens. Jon Husted (R-OH) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) — faced the prospect of defending a vote that, in a 30-second ad, would be summarized as “voted to pay rioters who beat cops.”

“Utterly stupid, morally wrong. The nation's top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) · on the DOJ anti-weaponization fund

The vote-a-rama ran from late June 4 into the early hours of June 5. Key outcomes:

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), despite his earlier threat (“I wouldn’t support a bill that doesn’t have that in there”), voted for final passage after his amendment failed. He cited Acting AG Todd Blanche’s Senate testimony that the fund was “largely inoperative” as sufficient. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)called the fund “stupid on stilts” and asked: “You want to make sure it’s not just mostly dead. You want to make sure it’s really dead.” He voted for final passage anyway.

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Every Democrat voted no. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) framed the bill as a statement of Republican priorities: “Republicans passed a rotten bill that makes their priorities painfully clear: more money for Donald Trump.” On the anti-weaponization fund specifically: “Do we believe that Donald Trump will be able to resist the slush fund? No way, no way.”

Democrats also cited two U.S. citizens who were shot and killed by federal immigration agents in Minnesota earlier in 2026, demanding accountability measures be attached to any ICE funding increase. Those provisions were not included. The ACLU characterized the bill as “cutting Medicaid to fund abusive deportation efforts” — a reference to the reconciliation package’s relationship with broader domestic spending legislation.

The bill now goes to the House, where floor consideration is expected the following week. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spent three hours at the White House on June 3 attempting to head off the House war powers vote on Iran; he will now need to manage a House floor debate on immigration enforcement that will again surface the anti-weaponization fund controversy. House conservatives will likely push for a permanent statutory ban on the fund as the price of their votes.

The DOJ anti-weaponization fund — the provision that sparked the intra-GOP civil war — was killed in practice, not in statute. A federal court in Virginia issued a temporary injunction blocking work on it. Acting AG Blanche testified it was “largely inoperative.” But it was never codified as prohibited. The fund can be revived. Every senator who voted yes knows this, and several said so publicly on the floor.

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