Senate passes $70B immigration enforcement bill without limits on Trump settlement fund

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agencies early Friday morning, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill. Senators voted 52-47 for the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the end of Trump's term. The final vote came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans narrowly defeated multiple attempts by Democrats and Republicans to add language to the bill that would permanently ban Trump's settlement fund for political allies who believe they have been politically persecuted. Sponsor Message Republicans cleared a major hurdle overnight when they defeated an amendment proposed by one of their own members, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, that would have redirected payments from the settlement to members of law enforcement who were injured in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. The amendments were a test of party unity that complicated what should have been an easy vote for Republicans who wanted to keep the focus on immigration enforcement in an election year. Instead, they spent almost a full day haggling among themselves over whether to block the settlement fund, even after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had said earlier this week that it would not go forward. "This would have been done several hours ago if we weren't having to deal with some of the issues around the fund," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before midnight. Thune himself has criticized the judgement fund, which was part of a settlement that resolves Trump's lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns and has angered many of his GOP colleagues. But he 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 in the House. Sponsor Message Still, a group of Republican senators pushed all day and into the night to block the settlement's payouts through legislation. That effort came after Trump 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. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pauses for questions from reporters before votes on the immigration enforcement funding package, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 4, 2026. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., pauses for questions from reporters before votes on the immigration enforcement funding package, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, June 4, 2026. J. Scott Applewhite/AP "I'd have to ask the lawyers," he said. Senators push back multiple attempts to ban settlement fund The first vote on Thursday morning, a Democratic effort to ban the settlement, was held open for several hours as three senators, including Cassidy, decided whether to support it. The Democratic motion was narrowly defeated when Cassidy eventually voted against it and the two other GOP senators — Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, both of whom are up for reelection this year — voted for it. The Senate then rejected a second amendment from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina that would also have banned the settlement fund but 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 fund 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." Cassidy's amendment to compensate the injured police officers was a pointed rebuke, as payouts from Trump's fund could have potentially gone to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Sponsor Message Despite Blanche's comments, Cassidy said that the fund is still part of an active settlement and "absolutely can be used." The Senate rejected several other Democratic efforts to try to block or limit the fund, including amendments to ban payments to Jan. 6 defendants who injured law enforcement officers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans are now "leaving taxpayers to rely on nothing more than a promise from Donald Trump's personal fixer. That is not accountability. That is a permission slip." ICE and Border Patrol money has been delayed for months Enactment 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 used a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it took 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. Sponsor Message Congress eventually funded the rest of the Homeland Security Department at the end of April with Democratic support, but ICE and Border Patrol has remained without regular funding. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Mullin Says ICE Training Going Back to ‘Regular Standards’

Markwayne Mullin, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, told lawmakers on Wednesday that his agency would be increasing the training requirements for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to their previous level starting this summer. The scope of ICE training became a point of contention as the Trump administration hired thousands of new officers over the past year and apparently cut training requirements as a result of the hiring push. A trove of documents released by Senate Democrats earlier this year showed that training hours had dropped by roughly 40 percent as of February, to approximately 336 hours. As of last July, it had been 584 hours. On Wednesday, Mr. Mullin said that those training requirements were changing. “We had to rewrite the curriculum. All training starting July 1st will be back up to the regular standards,” he said to the House Homeland Security Committee. The issue of training for new ICE officers became a flashpoint as the agency became involved in major operations in cities like Minneapolis. The shootings of two American citizens in that city, one of whom was shot by an ICE agent, further inflamed those conversations. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Then, in February, Ryan Schwank, a former ICE attorney who worked at the training academy, publicly criticized the changes. “For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program,” Mr. Schwank said in February, at a forum held in Washington by congressional Democrats. “Cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584-hour program — classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and the limits of officers’ authority.” Agency officials pushed back and said that hours had in fact not been slashed. “Our officers receive extensive firearm training, are taught de-escalation tactics, and receive Fourth and Fifth Amendment comprehensive instruction,” the agency said at the time. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump's mass deportation campaign takes a toll on college students

For years, researchers and advocates have documented the barriers students from immigrant families face when pursuing higher education. But the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has introduced new challenges and fears, even for many immigrants who are legally in the United States. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Minnesota for our series Rethinking College. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. Geoff Bennett: For years, researchers and advocates have documented the barriers students from immigrant families face in pursuing higher education. But the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign has introduced new challenges and new fears, even for many immigrants who are legally in the U.S. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports now from Minnesota, where federal authorities carried out a sweeping immigration enforcement operation earlier this year. It's part of our series Rethinking College. Fred de Sam Lazaro: As the spring semester wound to a close, the campus of Augsburg University bustled with students. For the small private school in Minneapolis, IT was a far cry from scenes in the Twin Cities just months earlier, when Operation Metro Surge brought thousands of federal agents to Minnesota, part of a massive immigration crackdown. Augsburg sits in the heart of the Cedar-Riverside and Minnesota's Somali population. The school reflects the community, with about 70 percent students of color. Many are immigrants. Paul Pribbenow has been Augsburg's president for 20 years. Paul Pribbenow, President, Augsburg University: Students who have lived through the experience here over the past several months with the Metro Surge, clearly, that trauma has affected them. I can see it in their faces. You can actually see it, especially here at the end of our semester, the weariness, the fatigue, just the stress. Fred de Sam Lazaro: Federal officials detained three Augsburg students, including one on campus in December. Woman: A man armed with a rifle standing outside of a residence hall. Fred de Sam Lazaro: The Department of Homeland Security called the student a -- quote -- "criminal illegal alien with multiple offenses." The "News Hour" independently confirmed an arrest for drunk and careless driving. Ultimately, courts ordered the release of all three Augsburg students, but the effect of the crackdown lingered, with all campus buildings remaining locked. Eva Skipwith is a biology major at Augsburg. Born in Ethiopia, she came to the United States at the age of 1. When ICE activity picked up over the winter, she started taking some classes online. Eva Skipwith, Student, Augsburg University: It's exhausting to have to be on guard all the time, to have to worry about whether or not you're going to be taken from the only home that. Especially students at Augsburg know, like, how much work you put in to get our education. And, like, you hear the whistles, and my thought is, like, oh, my God, all this work that I have put in, if I'm taken, that's gone. What am I left with? Fred de Sam Lazaro: Colleges throughout the Twin Cities area saw impacts from Operation Metro Surge. At Augsburg, requests for temporary leave double this semester. Elsewhere, new student enrollment declined and virtual learning climbed significantly. In a statement to the "News Hour," DHS said: "These students are only afraid because of fearmongering and lies being spread by agitators, sanctuary politicians and the media. Criminals are no longer able to hide in America's schools to avoid arrest." State Rep. Isaac Schultz (R-MN): I think that Metro Surge never needed to happen. Fred de Sam Lazaro: Isaac Schultz is a Republican in the Minnesota House of Representatives. State Rep. Isaac Schultz: Had, as an example, Minneapolis-St. Paul and more specifically the counties around them, had they been more cooperative early on, there would have been no need for Operation Metro Surge. Fred de Sam Lazaro: What were they not doing? State Rep. Isaac Schultz: So, they specifically adopted sanctuary policies which prevented communication and coordination with law enforcement entities at the Department of Homeland Security, with ICE. And because they didn't do that, it made it more difficult to do the job of immigration enforcement. Fred de Sam Lazaro: In recent years, multiple studies have documented the toll of immigration enforcement on college students, especially those from families with mixed immigration status. Researchers have found negative effects on students' ability to focus, their grades, and on enrollment. Corinne Kentor is with the Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration. Corinne Kentor: If students are not feeling safe, if they are worried about their families constantly, that has a real impact on their personal well-being, even if they are not the primary subjects of immigration enforcement. Fred de Sam Lazaro: Miguel Perez Espinoza just received an associate's degree in accounting, taking online classes from Southern New Hampshire University. He was born and raised in the Twin Cities, but comes from a mixed-status family. The past several months, he says, have been trying. Miguel Perez Espinoza, Student, Southern New Hampshire University: He just got this collage of a mess where I'm just trying to keep everything together and trying to make sure my family's OK. I had to push off a lot of assignments to take care of them, make sure they're OK, make sure to see where they're at all times. Fred de Sam Lazaro: Perez Espinoza, a corporal in the Army National Guard, put a patrol cap on the dashboard of his father's car, hoping to lower the chance of an encounter with ICE. He also pulled money out of his savings to install cameras outside his parents' home. Miguel Perez Espinoza: I'm trying to balance my education while trying to balance their safety. It was terrifying. Corinne Kentor: Between 2000 and 2023, 84 percent of enrollment growth in U.S. colleges and universities has been driven by first-and second-generation immigrants. We're talking about a really significant population in higher education. And if that population is not able to continue to flourish in higher ed, then college is going to look very different. Fred de Sam Lazaro: In recent years, Kentor has tracked movement around policies that help undocumented students afford college. In 2001, Texas became the first state to offer in-state tuition to undocumented students. By 2024, half of all states adopted similar measures. But, since then, challenges to those policies have mounted. The Trump administration sued nine states, including Minnesota. A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit in March. State Rep. Isaac Schultz: Greetings to each of you. Fred de Sam Lazaro: Last year, Representative Isaac Schultz introduced legislation to bar students without legal status from qualifying for state financial aid. He says, next year, about $3 million will go to some 300 undocumented students. Will it really make that much difference, do you think, or is it the principle that you're fighting for? State Rep. Isaac Schultz: It's both principle and it's the actual idea, right? So for those students who have legal status, they are missing out on $50. That's $50 that is going to someone without legal status. Fred de Sam Lazaro: What do you say to many of these students who will tell you that their parents, whilst not documented, are taxpayers? State Rep. Isaac Schultz: Yes, they're taxpayers, for sure. But at the same time, there is no reason that we should have the same playing field for someone with legal status who is a citizen and has gone through just the basics of supporting the United States. Paul Pribbenow: We're only cutting off our own future. Fred de Sam Lazaro: Augsburg's Paul Pribbenow, who estimates the school is home to dozens of undocumented students, disagrees. Paul Pribbenow: Our first undocumented student who is now an attorney in the United States has gained his citizenship, is married, and is working in an immigrant law center here in the Twin Cities. And, for me, if that's the possibility for what these students are going to give back to this country, then it's worth both our personal institutional resources, but also the support of the state and the federal government to be able to support those students. Fred de Sam Lazaro: For his part, Miguel Perez Espinoza to get his bachelor's degree in the fall. He then hopes to go to the University of Minnesota for his master's. The last several months have only hardened his resolve to finish his education. Miguel Perez Espinoza: I want to be in a position in terms of education and finance where I could take care of my family without having to have that feeling or burdened with it. I love my family to death, and I will -- they sacrificed everything to be here to give me an education, and I will sacrifice what I can for them. Fred de Sam Lazaro: For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Fred de Sam Lazaro in the Twin Cities. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.

Trump administration plan would allow for quick asylum rejections without interviews, internal documents show

The Trump administration is developing a plan that would allow U.S. immigration officials to quickly reject some asylum applications without interviewing the applicants, according to internal federal government documents obtained by CBS News. The Department of Homeland Security regulation described in the internal documents would be the latest effort by President Trump's White House to tighten access to the U.S. asylum system, which administration officials have claimed is plagued by systematic fraud. Under the regulation, officers at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of DHS, would be empowered to reject asylum applications, without adhering to the traditional practice of interviewing the applicants, if they find the cases were filed a year after their arrival to the U.S. USCIS would place rejected applicants in deportation proceedings before the Justice Department's immigration court system, requiring them to plead their cases to remain in the country in an adversarial setting, the documents say. U.S. immigration law generally disqualifies foreigners from applying for asylum if they do so a year after entering the country. But that provision includes exceptions, such as cases involving a serious medical condition or poor legal counsel. Unaccompanied minors are also not subject to the deadline. The regulation outlined in the internal federal documents would allow USCIS officers to move forward with an asylum case and schedule an interview if they determine the applicants meet one of the exceptions for not filing their application within the 1-year deadline. But the regulation would nonetheless upend USCIS' longstanding policy of interviewing virtually all asylum applicants before making a decision on their claims, allowing for quick rejections of cases where the paper record suggests the applicants did not meet the 1-year deadline. symbol 00:00 02:00 Read More In a statement to CBS News, a USCIS spokesperson said the Trump administration is "considering multiple options" to address a backlog of over a million asylum claims "created by the Biden administration's dangerous open borders policies," including sending "deficient" applications to the immigration courts. "This would allow USCIS to avoid wasting time on asylum applications that it would otherwise refer to immigration proceedings and will allow illegal aliens to have their claims heard by a judge," the USCIS spokesperson added. Conchita Cruz, an immigration lawyer who runs an organization that assists asylum-seekers, expressed concern that the regulation would "wrongfully" place applicants in deportation proceedings without allowing them to explain why they may have filed their application after the 1-year deadline. Cruz, the co-executive director of the Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project, said there are "many reasons" why asylum-seekers may file their applications more than a year after entering the U.S., including because they have been living in the country with a temporary status, like a visa. "The government would be changing the rules on immigrants who have been navigating a complex immigration process, often for many years," she added. U.S. law allows most foreigners on American soil to request asylum, even if they enter the country illegally. But the threshold to win the actual legal protection of asylum is much higher, requiring applicants to show they're fleeing persecution on the basis of their race, religion, nationality, political views or membership in a social group. Those granted asylum are allowed to live in the U.S. permanently, while those whose cases are denied are supposed to be deported. In recent years, a backlog of millions of asylum cases has hindered the federal government's ability to adjudicate applications quickly, a logjam that Republican and Democratic administrations have said encourages economic migrants to use the system to stay and work in the U.S., even though they do not qualify for asylum. USCIS, which oversees asylum cases filed by immigrants in the U.S. legally or who are not facing deportation, had 1.5 million pending asylum applications as of last fall, government figures show. Meanwhile, the Justice Department's immigration courts, which handle deportation cases, had 3.3 million pending claims as of March, 2.3 million of them involving asylum requests. As part of its deportation crackdown, the Trump administration has adopted various measures to restrict asylum and aggressively pursue the deportation of asylum-seekers, mainly those allowed into the U.S. along the southern border under the Biden administration. The administration has brokered "safe third country" deportation agreements with multiple nations across the globe, including ones with questionable human rights records, to send asylum-seekers to countries that are not their own, with instructions to seek refuge there instead of in the U.S. Last year, officials also froze all asylum cases overseen by USCIS, after the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., was revealed to be an Afghan man who had been granted asylum. After several months, that pause was scaled back, but remains in place for cases filed by citizens of 39 countries listed on Mr. Trump's "travel ban" proclamation. For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.