> Senate Passes $70 Billion Border-Enforcement Bill Without Killing Trump Fund

Republican senators stopped short of using their political leverage to kill President Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, approving a critical immigration-enforcement bill without adding language reining in the controversial program.

Passage of the $70 billion package funding Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s second term came after a more than 19-hour session of amendment votes and intraparty negotiations. The GOP-backed measure passed 52 to 47 shortly before 5 a.m., with Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting with Democrats against the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said the fund “won’t die until we permanently ban it by law, not by language, not by verbal promises, which can just evaporate, but by law.”