May 21, 2026
The Republican agenda to fund ICE just got derailed. Not by Democrats, but by angry Senate Republicans who just threw in the towel and left Washington, D.C., for their Memorial Day holiday recess.
What happened?
Well, a large group of Senate Republicans are pissed about that $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded anti-weaponization fund — you know, the fund set up as part of a settlement with President Trump to offer “compensation” to people who Trump and the DOJ say were prosecuted by the U.S. government for political reasons. I told you about how that anger started brewing with Republicans in this video yesterday, but today it boiled over.
See, the Senate was supposed to be in the final stages of passing their reconciliation bill today to fund ICE and Customs and Border Patrol for the rest of President Trump’s term to the tune of about $72 billion. That’s, of course, on top of the $75 billion ICE already received from Republicans in the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
And for the record, the new reconciliation bill Republicans are trying to pass would not include any changes to immigration enforcement, nor would it make any changes to the way ICE and CBP operate on the streets of America. And the fact is, whether you like that idea or not, passing this reconciliation bill with this massive amount of money for ICE and CBP should be a slam dunk for Republicans because all they need is a simple majority to pass it. They have 53 Republican senators, so they don’t need any Democrat votes.
But today they said no. They are not going to deal with that reconciliation bill at all until they get more solid answers about this so-called anti-weaponization fund from the president and his Justice Department. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met privately with Republican senators today to try and convince them to get on board, but they were not having it. They did not like the answers they were getting from Blanche, so they walked.
But this anti-weaponization fund isn’t the only thing Senate Republicans are challenging President Trump on. The original plan was this reconciliation bill was also going to include $1 billion in taxpayer funding for White House security, largely because of the president’s new ballroom. It’s important to note that while it is true the Senate parliamentarian ruled that ballroom security funding out of order because it didn’t meet the strict requirements to qualify for a reconciliation bill, it’s also true that lots of Senate Republicans did not support it. At least one said he’d vote no on the whole reconciliation bill if that funding somehow got included.
Bottom line here is Senate Republicans as a group are pushing back against the president and his signature immigration policy all because of Trump priorities like the ballroom and the anti-weaponization fund that Republican senators clearly think are politically toxic in the midterm elections. This is really one of those rare moments where Republicans are openly saying no to Trump.
After the Senate decided to cancel all votes today and go on recess early, the Republican leadership in the House followed suit. They said after final votes today, they’re throwing in the towel too. Neither chamber will be back in session until June.
