Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda stalled on Capitol Hill with Republicans furious over ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

By Ted Barrett, Adam Cancryn, CNN

(CNN) — Many Senate Republican remain furious at the Trump administration’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and are refusing to advance a separate bill to fund immigration enforcement until they are satisfied that payouts won’t go to people who assaulted police during the January attack on the US Capitol and other guardrails are put in place.

Yet despite vocal public complaints from those GOP senators over the last two weeks, the White House has yet to offer a serious solution to their concerns, according to two Republican aides who say the immigration funding will remain stalled until it does.

The lack of what senators see as credible movement by the White House is further eroding the bond between the administration and Senate Republicans. Many are already angry that President Donald Trump targeted two popular GOP senators who recently lost their primaries for reelection. And many also want to kill money Trump has demanded for security of his desired White House ballroom as they believe it is out of touch with the economic trials of their voters.

Trump is meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson at the White House on Monday to discuss roadblocks to the bill to fund immigration enforcement — specifically, according to a person familiar with the meeting, the administration’s proposed “anti-weaponization” fund.

“The two are meeting to discuss a number of issues, but the fund is certainly a key one,” the source told CNN.

A spokesman for Johnson said the speaker was meeting with the president but declined to specify the topic of the conversation.

Amid the backlash, some Trump advisers have privately advocated adding guardrails to the fund to appease Republican lawmakers and to quell the public criticism, people familiar with the discussions said.

One common suggestion has been to restrict those convicted of assaulting police from accessing the fund, in an effort to prevent the most violent rioters from the Capitol attack from collecting taxpayer-funded payouts.

Some allies are even urging the White House to scrap the fund altogether.

But Trump has publicly defended the fund, and the administration has yet to land on a clear path forward — leaving GOP senators bracing for a week of Democratic efforts to exploit their divisions.

At stake is the fate of $70 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which Senate leaders are attempting to pass in a budget process called reconciliation that allows them to adopt it on a party-line vote. Democrats are angry over tactics by those agencies they believe are too aggressive.

Trump had pressed for a June 1 deadline to pass the money that will fund those agencies through the end of his term. But the deadline was missed after GOP senators were enraged by the Department of Justice announcement about the “anti-weaponization” fund, which the agency said was aimed at paying restitution to people targeted by the Biden administration. Critics have said it amounts to a slush fund to pay out Trump’s allies.

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former long-serving GOP leader, said at the time it was “utterly stupid, morally wrong.”

Democrats have pledged to fight the fund on several fronts, including as part of the budget bill where they would be able to offer an unlimited number of amendments. They have said they will put Republicans — especially those up for reelection in November — on the record on the controversial policy.

“This week, Senate Democrats will launch a coordinated effort to kill the slush fund before one cent goes out the door. And no matter what Republicans do, we will force them to vote,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a Monday letter to his colleagues.

He added: “There will be no escape hatch. No fake guardrails or backroom promises to hide behind. No Justice Department announcement that makes this corruption acceptable.”

With the immigration agenda in limbo, the Senate is expected to take up nominations this week. Senators also hope to pass a three-year extension of a key national security program, known as FISA Section 702, that expires in less than two weeks. It has bipartisan support and is expected to pass.

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CNN’s Alayna Treene, Sarah Ferris and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.