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Immigration, Deficit Loom Large in Budget Reconciliation Battle

  • June 4, 2026
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Senate uses reconciliation to fund Trump immigration priorities with more reconciliation votes on the horizon.

Immigration, Deficit Loom Large in Budget Reconciliation Battle

Senate Republicans voted to advance a budget reconciliation package that would fund the Trump administration’s immigration priorities through the remainder of his term.

The reconciliation package, which was passed on Wednesday, funds immigration enforcement agencies such as ICE and CBP through 2029 at a price tag of $72 billion.

The vote was passed along party lines after months of Democrats opposing funding for ICE in the wake of the agency’s surge in Minneapolis.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-Sd. said that the package reaffirms Republicans’ commitment to upholding the ‘rule of law’.

“While the Democrats try to abolish ICE, Republicans are doing everything possible to uphold the rule of law. It’s why we are moving forward with a public security reconciliation bill that will provide the funding necessary for ICE and CBP for years to come.”

Thune said that he “feels good” about the House voting for the reconciliation bill as long as it stays confined to funding the Department of Homeland Security and does not veer into other issues.

“If it’s confined to the issues that we addressed in the budget resolution, then I feel good about the House moving it,” he said. “The best way … to get it done, is to get back to where we were originally, and that was a targeted, clean, focused, narrow bill that addresses specifically those Homeland Security issues and through the end of the administration.”

While Congress attempts to fund the President’s immigration priorities, House and Senate leadership have already discussed another reconciliation bill funding the rest of the government.

Some House and Senate Republicans have expressed a desire for the bill to address deficit spending, as the federal government’s debt now exceeds 100% of GDP.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) voiced support for a plan that will get deficit spending under GDP growth earlier this year.

“We’re talking about reframing where we take our crisis level annual deficits per economic output, which is about 6% of GDP, and put it on a glide slope down to 3%—here we’re growing the economy faster than our rate of deficit spending and inflation. That should put us on a better trajectory, a more sustainable one. And then, we can take it from there on a more ideal path to balance.”

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