US Senate Approves $70 Billion Budget for Homeland Security, Supporting Trump's Immigration Policy

Washington DC. The US Senate has passed a bill to provide an additional $70 billion budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), giving strong support to President Donald Trump's immigration control policy. This bill has now been sent to the House of Representatives for final approval.

The bill was passed by a vote of 52-47 in a vote held on Friday morning. All Democratic senators voted against it, and one Republican senator also opposed the bill.

This additional budget will primarily be used to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol activities, and to operate the Trump administration's controversial immigrant deportation campaign for the next three years.

During the debate on the bill, Democratic senators attempted to remove the so-called 'anti-weaponization fund' worth $1.8 billion. According to critics, this fund could be used to compensate the Trump administration's political allies based on claims of past mistreatment by the government. However, the proposal to remove it failed.

Senate Republican leader John Thune claimed that the fund is no longer a subject of controversy, stating that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has assured that the Justice Department will not move forward with it. However, Democrats have said that assurance is not enough.

Republicans have accused Democrats of trying to cut the budget for border security agencies. However, Democrats say that ICE and Border Patrol still have a large amount of money left to spend from the previous budget.

During the long debate on the bill, some senators also tried to include other unrelated immigration issues.

Among these was a provision that federal funds or private donations could not be used to build a grand ballroom of approximately 90,000 square feet proposed by President Trump on the White House grounds. However, all such amendment proposals were rejected.