The roughly $70 billion bill to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol was delayed for weeks as Republican senators navigated the various obstacles to passage created by President Donald Trump and the White House.

For those aligned with Trump's campaign promise for the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, it all but guarantees an uninterrupted flow of money to carry out the administration's immigration enforcement operations — and comes on top of some $170 billion Congress already approved for the department last summer, as part of Trump's big tax breaks bill.

Senate Republicans cleared the first hurdle on Thursday as they are struggling to pass legislation to fund President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agencies, narrowly beating back a Democratic effort to permanently block Trump from creating a $1.776 billion settlement fund for payouts to allies who claim they were persecuted by the government.

Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and unity on his side to complete weeks of action on the bill.

President Donald Trump signed a bill into law on Wednesday that gives his immigration and deportation agenda a nearly $70 billion boost for the rest of his time in the White House.