Senate Democrats Plan to Force Amendment Votes on Immigration Funding

Democrats are preparing to force Republicans into a long series of politically charged votes as the Senate takes up a Republican bill to fund immigration enforcement.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on June 3 on the Senate floor that Democrats will use the amendment process to put Republicans on record on the cost of living, tariffs, the conduct of immigration agents, and the war with Iran.

“Republicans are fighting for [President Donald] Trump,” Schumer said. “Democrats are fighting for the American people.”

The Senate was set to vote on Wednesday afternoon on a motion to proceed to the bill, S.2, according to the Senate Republican Cloakroom.

Republicans are moving it through budget reconciliation, which lets the majority pass certain spending measures with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes that most legislation requires. Democrats, who hold 47 seats to the Republicans’ 53, cannot block it. The process does let them force an unlimited number of amendment votes first, in a marathon session known as a vote-a-rama.

“Whenever we go into a vote-a-rama, Democrats will be ready,” Schumer said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee released updated text of its portion of the bill, which Republicans call the Secure America Act, on Wednesday afternoon.

According to a summary of the text, it would provide $31.075 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), $13.02 billion to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and $2.5 billion more to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), all available through 2029. Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the measure would keep DHS funding from being “held hostage by Democrats’ radical leftist agenda.”

Schumer said he would push amendments to permanently ban a separate Justice Department program that nearly derailed the bill. The $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund, as the department called it, was created to compensate victims of partisan-inspired government overreach.

The proposed fund stalled the legislation before the Memorial Day recess amid Republican objections. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a House subcommittee Tuesday that the department would not move forward with it but declined to commit to anything in writing. Schumer said that was not enough and that Republicans should vote to ban the fund in law.

The “anti-weaponization fund” was announced after President Donald Trump agreed to drop a lawsuit he had filed against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) defended the Secure America Act on the floor and accused Democrats of obstructing the funding for months. “It is a vote for safe communities, not for criminals,” he said. He said Democrats want to “defund the police” and return to “open borders,” characterizations that Democrats reject.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) argued that the spending is out of proportion to the threat and said that most of those arrested by immigration agents have no criminal record.

The fight is the last piece of a months-long standoff over DHS funding. A partial shutdown began Feb. 14 amid a deadlock over money for ICE and CBP, after Democrats sought new limits on immigration enforcement following two fatal shootings by federal agents in Minneapolis in January.

Congress ended the shutdown in late April by funding most of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency, while leaving ICE and parts of CBP out. This bill is an attempt to fund those two agencies.

If the Senate passes the bill, the House would still need to approve it before the agencies are funded.