“I didn't come prepared with the long list of victims of illegal immigrant crime: Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and a very long list of … I don't have the list of the literally tens of thousands, I think over hundreds of thousands, of children lost, immigrant children shuffled through the system, probably into the hands of sex traffickers.
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Senate Republicans Advance $72 Billion ICE and CBP Reconciliation Bill
May 19, 2026
Senate Republicans advanced a nearly $72 billion budget reconciliation package to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement ($38.2B) and Customs and Border Protection ($26B) through FY2029, plus $1 billion for White House security upgrades. The Senate Homeland Security Committee approved its portion 8-7 on May 19, 2026, followed by the Budget Committee advancing the bill 11-10 on May 20, clearing it for a Senate floor vote before the planned June 2 recess. The package — the largest immigration enforcement funding proposal in U.S. history — advances via reconciliation, requiring only 51 votes and bypassing a Democratic filibuster.
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12 Statements
“The right way to do it is like we did in 2013, or even in 2018. We can find a bipartisan path to do these things. So I'll oppose the unilateral effort that would put more money into agencies that could be better spent elsewhere.
“We're ready to move tomorrow … let's urge them to get it done as quickly as possible.
“This committee will not let Senate Democrats block paychecks for our border patrol and other law enforcement. We will not let them shut down inspections for fentanyl, weapons or nuclear material. And we will not stand idly by while they defund the interdiction of child sex trafficking across the border.
“We are doing this whole irresponsible and hyper-partisan spending exercise because the Republican majority does not want to pass common-sense reforms that would rein in ICE and hold agencies accountable.
“The Republican bill would pump tens of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol without any guardrails... At a time when Americans are struggling to put food on the table, Republicans say 'let them eat cake'... This staggering waste of taxpayer dollars has nothing, nothing to do with security and everything to do with Trump's ego. The American people are calling out for help, but these Ballroom Republicans have a constituency of one: Donald Trump's ego.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee is taking action to help provide certainty for federal law enforcement and safer streets for American families. We will work to ensure this critical funding gets signed into law without unnecessary delay.
“Now that Republicans have unveiled their bill gifting ICE and Border Patrol nearly $70 billion to continue propping up Trump's rogue police and wreaking havoc across American communities, Senate Democrats are prepared to review this bill line by line and vigorously challenge any provision that violates the Byrd Rule.
“In the coming days, the House will be working closely with the Senate as they commence on that reconciliation process. The sequencing is important. We've got to make sure that we don't isolate and, as I say, make an orphan out of key agencies of the department.
“I really regret that the Democrats have forced us down this path, because in my view, the appropriations process is one of the, maybe not many, but at least few things that we ought to be able to do around here in a bipartisan way.
“Republicans could have spent their reconciliation process on gas prices or the health insurance catastrophe that's about to hit Americans... We can't fund that kind of agency. We would be violating our oath of office, all of us, to fund an agency that just doesn't care about the law.
“Republicans are doing something that must be done quickly, and that our Democrat colleagues are trying to prevent us from doing. That something is simple: fully fund Border Patrol and ICE at a time of great threat to the United States.