Senate Republicans were forced to pass a reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol because Trump refused to make a deal with Democrats that reformed ICE and Border Patrol after American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot and killed in Minneapolis, MN, by Trump’s immigration officers.
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The original Senate Republican idea for the reconciliation bill was a simple bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol. They called this a skinny bill and thought that it could be quickly passed because the Department of Homeland Security has been burning through the funding that it received in last year’s Republican reconciliation bill to make up for the funds it has not received this year.
It should have been a simple process that would have forced them to own the actions of ICE and Border Patrol or come to the table and negotiate reforms.
Trump got involved and saw the reconciliation bill as a vehicle for massive corruption. First, Trump demanded a billion dollars for his supposedly privately funded ballroom. Then Trump launched a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” that was actually a taxpayer-funded slush fund for individuals who committed crimes trying to help the president overturn the 2020 election.
Senate Republicans rebelled against the ‘weaponization fund,’ so Democrats pounced and announced amendments to the reconciliation bill to basically kill the fund, and now, because of Trump, the entire agenda is on the verge of collapse in the Senate.
Republicans really want to go back to just funding ICE and Border Patrol, but the White House is refusing.