Senate sends border funding bill to House

WASHINGTON—The GOP-controlled Senate rejected on Wednesday the House version of a bill to fund care for migrants on the southern border. Instead, the Senate passed its own bill with sweeping bipartisan support, 84-8.

The Senate version allocated $4.6 billion for military security, immigration judges, and increased payroll for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Neither version contains any money for a border wall or more ICE detention beds.

The Democratic-majority House bill, which earned 55 “no” votes in the Senate, designated no money for military security measures, and it increased restrictions on federal handling of migrants. “They had to drag their bill way to the left to earn the support of most Democrats,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said before the Senate voted on the bill. “As a result, the House has not made much progress toward actually making a law, just more resistance theater.”

House Democrats said Thursday they were working on an amended version of their bill. Congress has a ramped-up sense of urgency to act on immigration after recent reports detailed the poor conditions of migrants in Border Patrol custody, acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner John Sanders resigned after imploring the legislature for more funding, and a horrific photograph of a drowned migrant father and daughter went viral.