WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is working overnight to pass legislation that would fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies as Democrats and some Republicans have tried to add language to permanently block Trump from creating a $1.776 billion settlement fund.
Earlier in the day, Republicans turned back a Democratic effort to block the fund, which would compensate the president's allies who say they have been politically persecuted.
But there were potentially more amendments to come overnight as Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana has said he will try again to block the settlement.
The amendments were a test of party unity and a threat to the immigration spending bill, as some Republicans have repeatedly voted to block the fund. The first vote on the settlement was held open for around three hours as several GOP senators decided whether to support it.
“I feel optimistic that we’ll get there in the end," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said Thursday evening, while acknowledging he was not sure how the votes would turn out.
Thune has been pushing GOP senators for weeks to keep the bill focused on the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which Democrats have blocked since early this year, and to avoid adding new provisions that could complicate its passage.
If an amendment limiting the settlement were to pass, Thune said, it would be “problematic” when they send the bill to the House. It could also mean a White House veto of the immigration spending bill, which has otherwise unified Trump and Republicans.
The last time the Senate abruptly changed a Homeland Security funding package, in March, the House simply refused to accept it and left town.
Trump's judgment fund, which was part of a settlement that resolves his lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, has angered many Republican senators.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said this week that the fund would not move forward. But Trump, who has been at odds with Senate Republicans in recent weeks, raised new doubts about the settlement’s future Wednesday afternoon — just after the Senate had voted to start debate on the immigration bill — when he told reporters that the settlement is “very important” and said “I don’t know” whether it is dead or on hold.
“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” he said.
The Senate rejected a second amendment from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina on Thursday that would also have banned the settlement fund but would have moved the money to a separate anti-fraud fund at the Department of Justice. Most Democrats voted against the amendment, guaranteeing its defeat, but more than 10 Republicans supported it.
Tillis said the settlement fund, some of which could potentially go to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is a political liability for the party.
“If Blanche says this is largely inoperative, why not use this moment to codify that?” Tillis said. “Otherwise, you’re exposing every one of our members who are in cycle to having to deal with this between today and Election Day, and that makes no sense for something that the DOJ says they’re not moving forward with."
It was unclear how Republicans would vote on additional amendments.
Cassidy, who lost re-election last month after Trump endorsed his primary opponent, said he still planned to offer an amendment to ban payouts from the settlement. He told reporters he may also offer an amendment to block a separate part of the settlement that would grant Trump and his family immunity from IRS audits.
Several Republican senators said they supported the idea but would have to see the final language before they decide. Sen. John Cornyn, who also lost reelection last month after Trump endorsed his opponent, said he agrees with the “thrust of it” but would wait to see the amendment. Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah said the same.
Thune said he believes the final bill should pass without language to prohibit the settlement.
“This is about border funding,” Thune said. “It’s about law enforcement, it’s about ICE and CBP. So I’m trying to, you know, keep it about the main thing.”
Democrats continued to offer amendments through the night, including on Trump's tariffs, his war with Iran and his immigration enforcement campaign.
“Amendment after amendment, vote after vote, Republicans are going to have to answer to the American people,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said at the beginning of the day.
Passage of the roughly $70 billion bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol would end the blockade by Democrats who demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents in January. The bill would fund the agencies for three years, through the end of Trump’s term.
Senate Republicans are using a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it has taken weeks to get the bill to the Senate floor as Republicans navigated various obstacles to passage created by Trump and the White House — including a $1 billion proposal for White House security and Trump's ballroom that they eventually scrapped and the fierce bipartisan backlash to the settlement fund.
Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.
After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the department funding lapsed in mid-February with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.
Congress eventually funded the rest of the Homeland Security Department at the end of April with Democratic support, but ICE and Border Patrol remained without regular funding.
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
