President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act, Republicans’ flagship immigration bill greenlighting $70 billion to fund federal immigration enforcement agencies for the rest of his term.
Surrounded by top congressional Republican leaders in the Oval Office, Trump enacted the spending package on Wednesday morning — ending a weekslong saga of intraparty dissension and setbacks that threatened the package’s survival. The House passed the bill on Tuesday, just days after it was approved by the Senate in an overnight marathon session last week.
“We’ll give the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol — and that’s what they are … the support and resources they need to defend our borders, protect our homeland and to keep America safe,” Trump said during the signing ceremony.
The funding package will allocate roughly $70 billion to federal immigration agencies for the next three years, specifically ICE and Border Patrol. The bill saw some changes last week as Senate GOP leaders stripped out language to dedicate funds for security enhancements to the White House ballroom project amid bipartisan opposition.
Still, House leaders still had their work cut out for them to get enough members on board with the package, especially as Republicans had to grapple with attendance issues due to primary elections in a handful of states on Tuesday.
Several Republicans still had questions surrounding the Justice Department’s recently created $1.78 billion anti-weaponization fund. The Trump-backed fund would allow individuals to be compensated if they feel they have been unfairly targeted by the federal government.
Other conservative Republicans initially protested the immigration bill’s passage, arguing the package didn’t go far enough to secure the southern border. In exchange, House GOP leaders agreed to schedule a vote on H.R. 2 — Republicans’ sweeping immigration reform bill — before the July 4 holiday.
The anti-weaponization fund slowed progress in the Senate over protests from Republicans and Democrats alike who wanted the account to be permanently dismantled. Some House Republicans expressed similar concerns, and they are working behind the scenes to formally ban the fund.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., are launching a bipartisan petition that would allow them to force a vote on a bill blocking the president from creating such a fund. It’s not yet clear when that would get a vote, but it’s expected to get the signatures needed to secure a vote on the floor.
The latest funding package ensures that Republicans will have no shortfall of cash for immigration enforcement agencies, especially after that became the flashpoint in the shutdown fight earlier this year. The Department of Homeland Security was shuttered for a record 76 days as Democrats refused to fund the agency until substantial reforms were implemented instructing how immigration officers can operate.
The shutdown fight ultimately ended in a bill funding the entirety of DHS except Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which both still have excess funds from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, passed last summer. But to ensure those agencies aren’t at risk of losing funding in a future shutdown fight, Republicans pushed forward to inject the agencies with cash for the rest of Trump’s term.
“For years, the Left surrendered our border to chaos and held crucial funding hostage every chance they got. Through the Secure America Act, Republicans are Schumer-proofing the border to keep American communities safe through the remainder of President Trump’s term,” Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said in a statement. “The Democrats chose open borders, so Republicans are using reconciliation, the most powerful tool available to circumvent obstruction, to finish the job without them.”
