$70 billion immigration funding package moves toward passage in House

The U.S. House on Tuesday is poised to vote on a $70 billion funding package despite Democrats’ vows to fight back. The vote is a major test for House Speaker Mike Johnson as he tries to cement one of President Donald Trump’s top domestic priorities.

Passage would likely end a monthslong stalemate over immigration enforcement that has shut down parts of the Department of Homeland Security.

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., chair of the House Democratic Caucus, called the package a “$70 billion blank check for ICE and border patrol, with no strings attached.”

“This comes after Republicans already cut healthcare, food assistance, and they’ve a already give ICE $140 billion in their Big Ugly Bill,” Aguilar said at a press conference on Tuesday, referring to Republicans’ 2025 tax and spending package more commonly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. “On top of that, this doesn’t do a single thing to help Americans with their daily costs of living.”

The package, which has broad support among Republican congressional leadership, would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, both of which are Department of Homeland Security subagencies that were left out of an earlier spending bill amid Democratic opposition. The $70 billion would extend through the end of Trump‘s presidency. And it could bring to an end a drawn-out debate over immigration enforcement policy that began in January – after federal law enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis as part of an immigration crackdown — and led to a government shutdown.

Trump had called for the bill to reach his desk by June 1. The package advanced out of the Senate last Friday, on a 52-47 vote with no Democratic support.

The House took an initial procedural vote early in the afternoon, with all Republicans voting in favor to narrowly approve it. The chamber will take a final vote on the package later Tuesday.

But its fate is far from certain even though it only needs a simple-majority vote to be approved. Johnson has struggled to get the Republican Party aligned as lawmakers on the right have said the measure doesn’t go far enough and some centrists with tough elections ahead in November express concerns about immigration enforcement practices.

Republican Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas hardliner, told House leadership that he was undecided, according to Politico. And Rep. Kevin Kiley, who switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent in March but still caucuses with the GOP, has said he opposes the package without changes to immigration enforcement.

“I thought we had a golden opportunity to come together as a Congress to implement those reforms and to rebuild trust and to focus immigration enforcement where most people think it…