US Senate edges toward advancing ICE, border funding plan

U.S. Senate Republicans edged on Thursday toward their goal of advancing a $70 billion plan to fund the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agencies for the next three years, while ignoring demands from Democrats for guardrails on immigration enforcement agents and their operations.



The funding plan, laid out in a non-binding budget resolution that Republicans unveiled on Tuesday, is a crucial step in their effort to end a partial shutdown that has gripped the Department of Homeland Security since mid-February.



The Senate began a marathon "vote-a-rama" session late on Wednesday, with votes on a series of proposed amendments ahead of a final vote on passage expected before lawmakers leave Washington on Thursday. Senate passage would send the measure to the House of Representatives.



Eight months before the November midterm elections, which will determine which party controls Congress in the final years of Donald Trump's presidency, Democrats sought to use the marathon voting session to portray Republicans as out of step with American families and the challenges they face from soaring gasoline prices and healthcare costs.