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President Donald Trump is set to sign a high-profile immigration enforcement bill after it finally passed a final vote in the U.S. House on Tuesday, ensuring that deportation and immigration enforcement operations continue at least until the end of his second term.
The legislation passed with a final vote of 214 to 212, following months of political skirmishing over the measure.
As reported by RSBN, the funding bill had cleared a key procedural vote on Tuesday, after previously gaining approval in the U.S. Senate last week. The House later voted to pass the bill in full, and according to the White House, the president was scheduled to sign it into law at around 10 AM ET on Wednesday.
“Just a few moments ago, the House Republicans voted to end the Democrat Department of Homeland Security Shutdown once and for all,” said Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday, during a press conference.
He continued, “And we are pleased to tell you that we’ll be funding, for the next three years, our border security and immigration enforcement – these are critical agencies and critical functions of the federal government, to state the obvious. And it’s rather shocking to us that Democrats wanted none of it.”
The standoff between Republicans and Democrats over the past few months has been fraught at times, leading to funding lapses that caused thousands of DHS employees to go without pay. This affected workers, for example, serving in key roles at the Transportation Security Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard.
“What was the end result of Democrats’ DHS shutdown?” observed Fox News’ congressional correspondent Bill Melugin. “Zero ICE reforms, and ICE and CBP are now funded with an additional $70 billion through the rest of Trump’s presidency…ICE & CBP now have more money coming to their coffers than they ever would have if there had been no DHS shutdown.”
Newly minted Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin remarked on X, “To be clear, this Democrat shutdown of ICE and CBP NEVER should have happened. Congressional Democrats have made it clear that they no longer support the brave men and women of ICE and Border Patrol, and the inflammatory rhetoric they and their allies have levied against them has led to unprecedented levels of threats and assaults.”
