US House Approves Nearly $70 Billion for Immigration Enforcement in Reconciliation Bill

June 10, 2026

Mintesinot Nigussie

The US House of Representatives has approved a reconciliation bill allocating just under 70 billion US dollars for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, deepening partisan divisions over border security funding and oversight at a time of lingering political fallout from an earlier government shutdown.

The package provides more than four times the agencies’ combined annual budgets and lifts Republican-backed Department of Homeland Security-related allocations to more than 260 billion US dollars in the first two years of the Trump administration, according to figures cited during congressional debate.

The vote lands against the backdrop of a prolonged dispute over immigration enforcement that previously triggered a 76-day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security.

The shutdown ended in April after President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan funding measure covering DHS agencies not directly involved in immigration enforcement through September 30, the close of the fiscal year.

The standoff had been fuelled by Democratic opposition to expanded immigration enforcement funding following the fatal shootings of two Americans by immigration agents in January, with negotiations on reform measures collapsing without agreement between the White House and Democrats.

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, framed the latest funding decision as a misalignment of priorities, arguing that households were under strain from rising living costs.