The U.S. Senate held a night session Feb. 20-21 to deliberate on a budget resolution aimed at establishing a framework for significantly increasing spending on stringent border security measures and large-scale deportations. Although the proposal is advancing in the Senate, there are disagreements between the Republican leadership of the House and the Senate as to how the process should proceed, which could delay its analysis until March.

According to a report by the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), the resolution paves the way for the granting of an additional $175 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as additional resources for the Departments of Justice and Defense. For comparison, DHS's current total budget, which encompasses not only border issues but also agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Secret Service, and the Coast Guard, is slightly more than $100 billion annually.

A Republican Senate aide, whose identity was not revealed, told the Washington Post that the new funds would be used to increase salaries and bonuses for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, to hire and retain immigration judges and federal prosecutors, to build the border wall, to expand detention infrastructure of immigrants and in financial support to state and local police forces.

Currently, Republicans hold 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Under normal circumstances, House rules require 60 votes to close debates and submit a matter to a vote. However, the resolution is being conducted by the "reconciliation" mechanism, a special legislative procedure that can be used sporadically and allows for the approval of measures with a simple majority, provided that all its provisions have a proven budgetary impact. This expedient allows the bill to be passed without the support of any Democratic senator.

Also according to the Wola article, during the early hours of February 20 to 21, senators analyzed several amendments, most of them proposed by Democrats. Despite being rejected along party lines, these amendments were introduced primarily for a symbolic purpose. Politico had anticipated that most of the Democratic proposals would focus on spending cuts, taxes and spending freezes by the Trump administration, without directly addressing immigration or border policies.

The resolution was approved by the Senate at 4:46 a.m. on February 21. The expectation is that the Chamber of Deputies will deliberate on a different version of the proposal the following week or the next. Eventually, both houses will need to approve an identical text for the reconciliation process to move forward. According to Punchbowl News, only after this step will Republicans be able to start formulating the package of policies that make up former President Donald Trump's agenda.