Immigration Vote: Secure America Act, SAVE Act, and Enforcement

Congress has taken three major immigration votes since mid-2025. Lawmakers enacted a $170.7 billion reconciliation package in July 2025, followed by a $70 billion enforcement bill signed on June 10, 2026. A separate effort to require documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration passed the House twice but has stalled in the Senate. Each of these immigration votes in Congress cleared on narrow, largely party-line margins, and each has drawn active legal challenges.

The July 2025 Reconciliation Bill

H.R. 1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025,” passed the Senate 51–50 on July 1, 2025, with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. The House cleared it 218–214 two days later, and President Trump signed it on July 4, 2025.¹

The law authorized roughly $170.7 billion in additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security, ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and the Department of Defense through September 30, 2029. Its immigration provisions included:

$45 billion to expand detention capacity, with a potential ceiling of 125,000 beds
$29.9 billion for ICE enforcement operations, including 10,000 new agents
$46.6 billion for border wall construction
$7.8 billion for 3,000 new Border Patrol agents
At least $14 billion in grants to state and local governments for immigration enforcement¹

The bill also created new immigration fees. Asylum applicants would pay a $100 filing fee plus $100 annually while their case remained pending, and $550 for an initial work permit. All nonimmigrant visa applicants would pay a new $250 “integrity” fee. Noncitizens apprehended between ports of entry or ordered removed in absentia would face a $5,000 charge.¹

On the spending side, the law tightened SNAP eligibility for undocumented individuals, reduced ACA payments to immigrants, and capped the number of immigration judges at 800 beginning in November 2028.²

The Secure America Act — June 2026

Less than a year later, Congress approved another major enforcement package. The Senate passed S. 2, the Secure America Act, 52–47 in the early hours of Friday, June 5, 2026, after weeks of delays and an overnight session.³⁴ The House followed on June 9, passing the bill 214–212. President Trump signed it on June 10, 2026.⁵

The legislation provided roughly $70 billion to DHS for immigration enforcement over three years: about $38 billion for ICE, $22 billion for CBP, and $5 billion for contingency and operational costs.⁵ Like the reconciliation bill before it, it advanced through a procedural maneuver that allowed passage without Democratic votes.⁶

How Senators Voted

The Senate vote fell almost perfectly along party lines. All 51 Republicans present voted yes; every Democrat voted no. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican to break ranks, citing concerns that the bill circumvented the normal appropriations process.⁷ Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado did not vote.⁶ In the House, the two-vote margin underscored how narrow the Republican majority’s path had become.

The Anti-Weaponization Fund Fight

The Senate’s overnight debate turned largely on a separate item embedded in the broader budget: a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” settlement fund created by the Trump administration’s Department of Justice. The fund originated from a lawsuit Trump filed against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced it on May 18, 2026, to compensate individuals who claimed they had been victims of government “lawfare” under the Biden administration.⁸

The fund drew bipartisan criticism. Several January 6 Capitol riot participants, including former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, publicly indicated they intended to apply for grants. Senator Thom Tillis called the fund “stupid on stilts.” Senator Chuck Schumer labeled it “the most brazen act of self-dealing.” A group of 35 former federal judges filed a motion alleging that the fund’s creation constituted a fraud on the court, and a federal judge in Miami reopened the underlying IRS case to investigate whether the settlement was premised on deception.⁸

During the overnight debate, multiple amendments to strip or redirect the fund failed. Schumer’s motion to kill it fell 50–49, with Republican Senators Susan Collins, Jon Husted, and Dan Sullivan crossing party lines to support it.³ Tillis proposed redirecting the money to a DOJ anti-fraud account. Senator Bill Cassidy offered an amendment to send it to law enforcement officers injured during the January 6 attack. Both were defeated.⁶ On June 12, 2026, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction blocking the fund’s implementation, finding that challengers had shown a likelihood of success on the merits.⁹

The SAVE Act and Proof-of-Citizenship Voting

The other major immigration-related vote series in this Congress has been over documentary proof of citizenship for voter registration. Two versions of the bill have passed the House. Neither has become law.

House Votes

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, sponsored by Representative Chip Roy of Texas, passed the House on April 10, 2025. Nearly every Republican voted yes, joined by four Democrats: Representatives Ed Case, Henry Cuellar, Jared Golden, and Marie Perez. The bill would require anyone registering with the federal registration form to present documents such as a valid U.S. passport or a government-issued photo ID combined with a certified birth certificate, in person at a local election office.¹⁰

A broader companion, the SAVE America Act, passed the House in February 2026 on a 218–213 party-line vote. That version added a photo ID requirement at the polls, mandated that states share voter information with DHS to verify citizenship, and imposed additional restrictions on absentee ballots.¹¹

Senate Stalemate

Both versions have stalled in the Senate, where the 60-vote filibuster threshold has proven insurmountable. Senate Republicans opened debate on the SAVE America Act in mid-March 2026, but Majority Leader John Thune said he could not guarantee the outcome and resisted pressure from Senator Mike Lee and former President Trump to eliminate or circumvent the legislative filibuster.¹² A test vote during a vote-a-rama fell just short of 50 votes. By early May 2026, Republican leaders effectively shelved the bill, with leadership viewing it as having done more harm than good to the party. Senator John Kennedy indicated he planned to force another vote during a future vote-a-rama.¹³

The Underlying Disagreement

Supporters argue the bills are needed to enforce existing prohibitions on noncitizen voting and to bolster public confidence in elections. Federal law has prohibited noncitizens from voting in federal elections since 1996, when the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act added 18 U.S.C. § 611, which makes the offense punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine.¹⁴ Noncitizens who vote unlawfully also face deportation.¹⁵ But no federal law currently requires documentary proof of citizenship to register, and proponents contend the existing self-attestation under penalty of perjury is inadequate.

Opponents point to state audits showing noncitizen voting is rare. A Center for Election Innovation and Research report, updated in February 2026, found that even the largest state-level claims of noncitizen registration amounted to no more than a few tenths of a percent of eligible voters, and that initial allegations were “highly likely to be significantly revised down” after investigation.¹⁶¹⁷¹⁸

Critics also warn that documentary requirements would block eligible Americans from registering. Approximately 20 million voting-age U.S. citizens lack ready access to documentary proof of citizenship, and nearly half of Americans do not possess a passport.¹¹ Kansas and Arizona previously implemented similar requirements. In Kansas, a federal court found that the state’s law prevented more than 31,000 applicants from registering while catching, at most, 67 noncitizens who attempted to register over a 19-year span. The Tenth Circuit struck the law down in 2020, ruling that it violated the National Voter Registration Act and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.¹⁹

Enforcement Actions Following the Votes

The enforcement laws have already reshaped federal operations. In August 2025, USCIS issued a policy directive (PA-2025-20) requiring that noncitizens who falsely claimed U.S. citizenship on voter registration forms be issued a Notice to Appear in removal proceedings and that their naturalization applications generally be denied.²⁰

The Department of Homeland Security has processed more than 60 million voter registration records through a revamped federal immigration database, producing approximately 24,000 flags for potential noncitizens, roughly 0.04% of the records reviewed. All 24,000 cases have been referred to ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations unit.²¹ HSI agents have requested voter registration and voting records from local election officials in Texas and North Carolina, according to emails obtained through a public records lawsuit by Democracy Forward.²² The DOJ has prioritized 90 open investigations and brought at least one case in Louisiana as of June 2026.

Election officials have noted that at least some of those flagged as potential noncitizens are actually U.S. citizens, and DHS has not disclosed how many flags have been confirmed as accurate. In North Carolina’s Forsyth County, individuals whose records were requested by ICE had already been removed from voter rolls before the inquiry.²² No deportations resulting from these investigations have been publicly confirmed. A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that Michigan is not required to provide unredacted voter rolls to the DOJ, and a federal judge separately blocked a Trump administration overhaul of the DHS SAVE database, citing threats to voter privacy.²¹

A Note on Local Noncitizen Voting

The federal prohibition on noncitizen voting applies to federal elections. A handful of municipalities allow noncitizen residents to vote in certain local contests. Takoma Park, Maryland, has done so for more than 30 years. In Vermont, Winooski, Burlington, and Montpelier allow legally present noncitizens to vote in local and school elections through their city charters.²³ San Francisco permits noncitizen parents and guardians to vote in Board of Education elections under Proposition N, approved by voters in 2016 and upheld by a California appellate court in August 2023.²⁴ Washington, D.C.’s law allowing noncitizen voting in local elections took effect in January 2024, and congressional Republicans have introduced legislation to repeal it.²⁵ None of these programs permit noncitizens to vote in state or federal elections.

1
American Immigration Council. Big Beautiful Bill Immigration and Border Security Fact Sheet
2
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Breaking Down the One Big Beautiful Bill
3
CNBC. Senate Passes $70 Billion in New Funds for ICE, Border Patrol
4
New York Times. Trump Fund Immigration Bill Republicans Vote
5
Forum Together. Policy Bulletin Friday June 12 2026
6
Federal News Network. Senate in Overnight Session as Republicans Debate Limits on Trump Settlement
7
Politico. Senate DHS Immigration Funding Trump
8
The Guardian. Trump Anti-Weaponization Slush Fund Allies
9
Democracy Forward. Federal Court Blocks Trump-Vance Administration’s $1.776 Billion Slush Fund
10
Office of Rep. Ross. Republican Bill Requiring Proof of Citizenship for Voting Passes U.S. House
11
WTTW News. House GOP Pushes Strict Proof of Citizenship Requirement for Voters
12
Politico. SAVE America Act Senate Debate
13
Punchbowl News. Shelves SAVE
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. § 611
15
Cornell Law Institute. 8 U.S.C. § 1227
16
Center for Election Innovation & Research. Noncitizen Analysis
17
Votebeat. Noncitizen Voting Is Rare Research Shows
18
Bipartisan Policy Center. Five Things to Know About the SAVE Act
19
Justia. Fish v. Schwab, 18-3133
20
USCIS. Voter Registration Policy Manual Update
21
Votebeat. Trump Immigration Investigation Noncitizen Voters Concerns
22
El País. Trump Administration Tasks ICE With Tracking False Voters
23
NPR. Noncitizen Voting Local Elections Vermont
24
City and County of San Francisco. Non-Citizen Voting Rights Local Board of Education Elections
25
U.S. Congress. H.R. 884, 119th Congress