US Senate votes to advance $70 billion funding plan for ICE, Border Patrol

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



Lawmakers voted 50-48 in the predawn hours to adopt thenon-binding budget resolutionand send it to the U.S. House of Representatives, taking a crucial step forward in their effort to end a partial shutdown that has gripped the Department of Homeland Security since mid-February.



Two Republicans - Senators Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski - opposed the measure.



If adopted by the House, the resolution will allow congressional committees to begin filling in the details on how the $70 billion would be spent in separate legislation that President Donald Trump would have to sign into law. The new funding would be expected to run through Trump's presidency, which ends in January 2029.



With Democrats adamantly opposed to the funding initiative, Republicans plan to employ a rarely used procedure known as budget reconciliation in the separate legislation, which allows some budget-related bills to bypass Democratic opposition in the Senate.