Trump Signs $70 Billion Bill to Fund ICE and Border Patrol Through End of Term

WASHINGTON, President Donald Trump on June 10 signed a nearly $70 billion spending package that funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection through the remainder of his second term, ending a protracted legislative standoff that had left the two agencies operating without a guaranteed budget since February.

The White House confirmed the signing after the Republican-controlled House narrowly approved the measure the night before. According to NBC News, the House vote was 214-212. The Senate had passed the bill the previous Friday.

The legislation, known as the Secure America Act and advanced through the budget reconciliation process, allocates the bulk of its funds to the two immigration enforcement agencies. According to a congressional summary reviewed by ExecutiveGov, the measure provides funding for CBP personnel, border security technology and screening efforts, and immigration enforcement operations. Congressional Budget Office estimates reviewed by ETL Newswire put CBP's direct appropriation at $22.6 billion and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations directorate alone at $7.5 billion.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, framed the bill narrowly in floor remarks reported by NPR. "We're attempting here to fund ICE and CBP at last year's operating budget plus inflation, that's all we're talking about here," Arrington said. He added that the three-year funding window was meant to prevent a repeat of the legislative crisis.

CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott said the agencies had been in genuine operational distress. According to NPR's reporting, Scott said absent the reconciliation funds, CBP was struggling to correctly pay its employees and fulfill contracts.

Critics were not convinced by the framing. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was the only Republican in either chamber to vote against the final measure. As reported by NPR, Murkowski wrote in a statement that appropriating funds for three fiscal years rather than the customary one "weakens the normal budgeting process." Immigration advocates raised a separate objection: because the bill moved through reconciliation rather than the standard appropriations process, the statutory guardrails that normally accompany DHS funding, reporting requirements, detention standards, warrant rules, were not attached. Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told NPR the absence of those provisions was a central concern.

The bill's passage caps a months-long fight rooted in a February 14 shutdown of DHS that ran 76 days, the longest for any single federal department on record. The shutdown began after Senate Democrats withdrew support for a DHS appropriations bill following the killing of a civilian by CBP agents, according to Wikipedia's account of the 2026 federal government shutdowns. A bipartisan bill to fund most of DHS finally cleared Congress in late April, but it deliberately excluded ICE and Border Patrol funding, leaving Republicans to pursue reconciliation as a separate track.

Reconciliation allowed the measure to clear the Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes rather than the 60 needed to break a filibuster. Senate Republicans had passed their version of the package 52-47, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's legislative tracker.

The same day he signed the bill, Trump on Truth Social called on congressional Republicans to immediately advance what he labeled "Recon 3.0," a proposed third reconciliation package carrying approximately $350 billion in additional military and other spending. NBC News reported he directed the request to GOP leadership with explicit instructions for no delays or compromises. That demand landed hours after his signature on the ICE bill, signaling that the reconciliation process that has defined much of the 119th Congress's legislative activity is not yet finished.

Sources cited:
- NBC News live blog, June 10, 2026 (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/live-blog/trump-maine-sc-california-primary-ice-fisa-gates-epstein-live-updates-rcna349337)
- NPR, 'Trump signs immigration bill with billions for ICE,' June 9, 2026 (https://www.npr.org/2026/06/09/nx-s1-5851664/house-reconciliation-vote-immigration-enforcement-ice-border-patrol)
- ExecutiveGov, 'Trump Signs Secure America Act Into Law' (https://www.executivegov.com/articles/trump-secure-america-act-signed-ice-cbp-funding)
- Congressional Budget Office, reconciliation cost estimate, May 4, 2026 (https://www.cbo.gov/publication/62413)
- National Low Income Housing Coalition, legislative tracker, June 8, 2026 (https://nlihc.org/resource/senate-republicans-release-72-billion-reconciliation-bill-funding-ice-cbp-and-white-house)
- Wikipedia, '2026 United States federal government shutdowns' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_federal_government_shutdowns)