President Donald Trump signed the $70 billion Republican-led homeland security bill Wednesday after the Senate-crafted measure narrowly passed the House despite the GOP’s slim majority.
Speaking from the Oval Office alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and other lawmakers, Trump said he was “thrilled” to fund the Department of Homeland Security and give “heroes of ICE and Border Patrol” needed resources through the end of his term, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“The bill provides crucial funding for domestic law enforcement investigations and combating child exploitation, continuing our work to restore law and order across our nation, and to protect America’s youth,” the president said.
TRUMP ON VERGE OF SECURING $70B ICE FUNDING VICTORY AFTER HOUSE CLEARS HURDLE
“For more than 100 days, congressional Democrats tried to block all funding for the Department of Homeland Security in a reprehensible attempt to throw open the borders of the United States of America,” he added. “They want to drag us straight back to chaos and crime of the Crooked Joe Biden administration, one of the most corrupt administrations, probably the most corrupt ever.”
Trump took shots at former President Joe Biden for his “open border policy” allowing 25 million migrants to illegally enter the U.S. and former Vice President Kamala Harris, named border czar, for not utilizing ICE and border patrol.
“She never once called them,” Trump said. “She was the border czar for four years, almost four years, and she never went to the border, and she never called up. I used to call them all the time.”
He said the crossing of fentanyl across the border has been cut by almost 60%, with law enforcement now narrowing in on land crossings “because the sea was tougher.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said Tuesday it was imperative that the lower chamber act amid “heightened security threats.”
The $70 billion package initially faced resistance from conservatives who pushed to codify Trump’s immigration-related executive orders, which still lack the full force of law.
“We need to codify what the president has done across the board,” Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, told reporters Tuesday. “So we’re going to fund the people who will try to keep the bad guys out, but we haven’t codified the actions to prevent them to do to come back here in three years or so.”
All Senate Democrats and Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski voted against the bill in early June, while the rest of the GOP argued that ICE and Customs and Border Protection must be fully funded through the remainder of Trump’s term.
California Rep. Pete Aguilar, a member of House Democratic leadership, said that giving a “$70 billion blank check to ICE” is the wrong move, claiming the agency has a record of “brutalizing (and) terrorizing” American communities.
Trump initially gave congressional Republicans a June 1 deadline to secure funding for ICE and Border Protection, but intra-party opposition to the president’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” delayed the measure’s passage. Some Republicans feared people convicted of violent offenses, including assaulting police officers, in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot could access taxpayer funds.
The bill’s passage comes months after Democrats successfully shut down the Department of Homeland Security over objections to Trump’s immigration enforcement actions.
However, the shutdown’s impact was limited because ICE had already been separately funded through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act the previous November.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for additional comment.
Source – https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-takes-ice-shutdowns-off-table-signature-key-70b-bill
