U.S. Republican Senators abandoned on Thursday plans to vote on a funding bill for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in an act of revolt against one of President Donald Trump’s priorities: a $1.8 billion fund for victims of the government’s ‘instrumentalization’, including those convicted of crimes during the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021.
As a result, the Senate abandoned the voting on a $72 billion bill that would fund Trump’s mass deportation program, delaying the vote until June.
From the outset, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the legislation should be tightly targeted to guarantee the $72 billion with a simple-majority vote. But the $1.8 billion fund for the ‘instrumentalization’ and the request for $1 billion to build a White House ballroom became the main points of dispute.
“It was something that should have been very specific, targeted, focused, clear and direct, but became a little more complicated this week,” Thune said, expressing his frustration. “That makes everything much harder than it should be.”
