After months of delay, the U.S. Senate has finally approved a bill to fund federal immigration agencies through the remainder of President Trump’s term. The vote came after a wearying, 18-hour-long “vote-a-rama,” in which the Democratic minority tried to derail the bill with everything but the kitchen sink, to no avail. When the final vote was taken early Friday morning, the measure passed on reconciliation 52-47, with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) breaking ranks to vote with Democrats.

Republicans bypassed the filibuster using reconciliation, a vehicle with extremely limited utility. Bills considered on reconciliation must be budgetary measures, and their provisions are subject to approval by the Senate parliamentarian, although the Senate Majority leader could overrule these decisions. However, the greatest constraint is that reconciliation may only be used a handful of times in each (two-year) session of Congress. Friday’s vote was the second reconciliation bill passed by Republicans, after the Big Beautiful Bill passed last summer.

The bill provides funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as well as the immigration-related parts of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), which Senate Democrats have adamantly refused to fund since October. “Why are we doing this bill?” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) catechized the chamber on Thursday. “We are here today only because Democrats refuse to appropriate a single dollar for our border and immigration law enforcement.”

The vote followed 18 hours of votes on amendments, stretching from Thursday into Friday, as Democrats tried to inject poison pills that would derail the legislation.

The top target during this marathon amendment session, known as a “vote-a-rama,” was the Trump administration’s attempt to create a $1.776 billion fund to compensate victims of weaponization of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Democrats have attacked the proposal as a “slush fund” for the president’s allies since it was first announced, and the fund’s current legal prospects look unfavorable.

The first amendment considered in the marathon session would have sent the bill back to the Judiciary Committee for changes that would permanently bar the DOJ from creating such a fund. It failed 49-50, with three ultimately siding with Democrats, Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Jon Husted (Ohio), and Dan Sullivan (Alaska). Husted, Sullivan, and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) did not vote for more than two hours, forcing leadership to hold the vote open. Ultimately, Cassidy’s “no” vote kept the reconciliation package on track.

The delay seemed to prefigure the long night that would follow.

Shortly thereafter, Senator Thom Tills (R-N.C.) proposed his own amendment to redirect the nearly $1.8 billion from a weaponization fund to fraud enforcement. That proposal failed 15-84, with support from 12 Republicans and three Democrats. Later, Cassidy and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) proposed an amendment to redirect the funds to law enforcement who defended the Capitol on January 6 — a parting shot from Cassidy against Trump. That measure needed 60 votes, and it failed 52-46.

Ultimately, the narrow reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement successfully ran the gauntlet without sustaining any lethal blows. Every attempt to load the bill down with extraneous restrictions over the weaponization fund fell away. Other votes (such as parts of the SAVE America Act, or an amendment to prevent Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Bill Pulte from serving as the acting Director of National Intelligence) also failed.

Like the Millennium Falcon ejecting from a crippled Death Star’s central exhaust port in “Return of the Jedi,” the reconciliation bill escaped the vote-a-rama — and in one piece.

After eight months of funding uncertainty, the reconciliation measure clearing the Senate may finally secure immigration enforcement funding for the remainder of President Trump’s term. Since October 1, 2025, Senate Democrats have orchestrated no less than three government shutdowns to prevent President Trump from upholding federal immigration law — the same laws they swore to protect when they assumed their current offices.

From October 1 to November 12, Democrats shut the entire federal government down for a record-breaking 42 days, before caving to accept a deal Republicans had offered weeks earlier. From January 31 to February 3, approximately half the government (that is, agencies funded through six out of 12 appropriations bills) shut down over a weekend when last-minute negotiations resulted in Congress missing a deadline to maintain continuous funding.

The Republican push to restore normal budgetary processes succeeded in passing 11 out of 12 appropriations packages, but Senate Democrats stubbornly refused to agree to any deal offered on the Homeland Security bill — often one of the easiest to pass. Democrats demanded extreme changes to immigration enforcement and kept changing their demands if they got concessions.

As a result, a temporary extension of DHS funding expired on February 14, and the department went without funding for a stunning 76 days (smashing the newly-set record of 42 days), until its funding was partially restored on April 30. Due to the nature of Homeland Security, most operations of this department (Secret Service, TSA, etc.) were deemed essential, and workers were forced to work without pay.

In the end, Democrats still adamantly refused to fund ICE and immigration-related parts of Customs and Border Patrol. Ironically, however, these departments had already received funding in advance through the Big Beautiful Bill; thus they largely escaped the impacts of the DHS shutdown. Now, as Democrats refuse to authorize any funds for immigration enforcement, Republicans have chosen to use reconciliation to fund ICE and other immigration operations through the end of Trump’s term.

The funding measure now heads to the House, where Republicans hold an extremely narrow margin. Many conservatives would like to see other priorities added to the reconciliation measure, but leadership will likely work to forestall those efforts and pass the Senate bill as-is. Any amendments would trigger another Senate vote-a-rama. The House already left Washington before the Senate vote, which means it could take up the Senate measure on Monday evening at the earliest.