Republicans’ grand plan to fund ICE is crumbling under the weight of too many bizarre demands, and it’s getting worse

Republicans’ ambitious plan to use a special legislative tactic to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is hitting some serious snags, as lawmakers try to cram too many unrelated demands into one bill. This process, known as budget reconciliation, is supposed to be a focused way to pass legislation with a simple majority, bypassing the Senate filibuster.

President Trump is a big fan of using reconciliation again, especially since Democrats aren’t budging on funding immigration operations. He’s pushing hard for Republicans to get a bill on his desk by June 1. “We are going to work as fast and as focused as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won’t be able to stop us,” President Trump said on Truth Social. This move comes as Congress inches closer to wrapping up the ongoing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.

Last year, Republicans successfully used this same process to pass President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” but it was a labor-intensive maneuver that almost fell apart. The challenge now is getting both the Senate and the House on the same page about what exactly should be included.

This is proving to be a tough ask because many Republicans have started to see this reconciliation package as a catch-all for a whole host of other legislative priorities

Since the “big, beautiful bill” passed, Republicans have considered using reconciliation to tackle things like fraud, affordability issues, President Trump’s tariff authorities, additional tax provisions, healthcare reforms, funding for the Iran war, supplemental agriculture spending, and even election integrity measures. This is where the process starts to get messy.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, has openly warned that if reconciliation is going to work, especially with the tight timeline, Republicans need to “keep our expectations realistic.” He’s emphasized that the bill should be “as narrow and focused as possible” to maximize speed and support. He understands that there will be attempts to add other issues, but he believes a reconciliation vehicle, which needs to move quickly, isn’t the right place for all those extra demands.

Interestingly, Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, has floated an idea that might ease some of the pressure. He told voters in South Carolina that he’s eyeing two new reconciliation packages. The first would be solely for funding ICE and Border Patrol, aiming for multi-year funding and getting it done quickly. The second package, he said, would come in the fall and focus on going after fraud.

However, House Republicans, especially during their policy retreat earlier this year, were pushing for what they’re calling “reconciliation 2.0.” They’re gearing up to load this package with several provisions that could drain time and struggle to gain support in the Senate.

The Republican Study Committee (RSC) is a big proponent of a second reconciliation bill, and they want to add proposals addressing affordability concerns. They’ve stated their support for funding military readiness and Homeland Security through this process, while also trying to “codify the president’s agenda to deliver lower costs for working families.”

One of the latest policy fights some Republicans want to include is the Safeguarding American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which deals with voter ID and citizenship verification. The problem is, this legislation has absolutely no chance of passing the Senate, given the unified Democratic opposition. Plus, it’s unlikely to survive the Senate’s strict reconciliation rules, which only allow provisions that directly impact spending.

Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas, has been pretty blunt about the reality of the situation. He told reporters that Republicans have to “set our sights a little bit lower on this reconciliation bill.” For him, the number one priority is funding ICE for 10 years. While he thinks “nibbling at the edges” of the SAVE Act would be great, he acknowledges that “the parliamentarian is not going to let us do the SAVE Act. That’s just an impossibility.”

Even some of the loudest proponents of the SAVE Act in the House GOP admit that adding it to reconciliation would be a challenge. They’d prefer to keep the bill intact and push it through the Senate separately. Getting enough Republicans aligned to pass a bill that also adheres to the process’s strict rules is going to be a huge hurdle, and it’s making an already difficult task even more complicated.