The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced a reconciliation bill Wednesday that would allocate more than $17 billion to fund immigration enforcement agencies for fiscal year 2026, clearing the measure for a potential floor vote as early as this week over unified Democratic opposition.
The bill passed 8-5 along party lines, with Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) leading the effort after months of failed negotiations with Democrats over appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security. The legislation includes $9.5 billion for Customs and Border Protection recruitment and nearly $7.5 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruitment in fiscal year 2026. An additional $3.5 billion covers CBP operations through fiscal year 2029, including funding for artificial intelligence and machine learning systems to support enforcement missions.
“Democrats said they would not fund ICE, no matter what,” Paul said in remarks after the vote. “Because their base is so rabid.”
The bill advances after Congress allowed the Department of Homeland Security to remain unfunded for a record 76 days earlier this year. Republicans attributed the extended shutdown to Democratic refusal to approve border enforcement appropriations.
Paul acknowledged using the reconciliation process as unusual but said Democrats forced the move. “I don’t like doing appropriations this way,” he said. “I think it’s not a good precedent. But the Democrats left us no choice.”
Paul cited record illegal border crossings as the central justification for emergency funding. “8 million people came across the border,” he said. “This is a real problem. It’s overwhelming our welfare system, overwhelming our hospitals.”
The chairman also cited recent enforcement operations as evidence that tougher policies are producing results. “Tom Homan went to Minneapolis, and I haven’t seen any news breaks out there,” Paul said, referencing border czar Tom Homan’s enforcement operation in the city. “I haven’t seen people in the street rioting. I think reforms have happened.”
Republicans are racing to move the bill to the Senate floor before the end of the week as part of a broader reconciliation package assembled to advance President Trump’s domestic agenda without Democratic votes.
