The Senate voted along party lines on Wednesday to take up Republicans\u2019 $70 billion immigration crackdown bill, but several G.O.P. senators suggested they would not allow it to pass without new language barring President Trump from creating a fund to compensate his political allies.<\/p>\n
The 53-to-46 vote began debate on legislation that was supposed to unite Republicans around Mr. Trump\u2019s hard-line immigration enforcement agenda, but has instead become a flashpoint for clashes between the president and G.O.P. members of Congress just months before the midterm elections.<\/p>\n
Before bringing it up, Republicans followed through on a decision they made late last month to jettison $1 billion in security funds for Mr. Trump\u2019s ballroom<\/a> and other White House renovations, which had drawn a mini-revolt within his party.<\/p>\n They were also discussing adding a provision that would block Mr. Trump from resurrecting the idea of creating a $1.8 billion fund<\/a> to pay people who claim to have been victimized by the government, which the administration dropped this week after it came under withering attack from members of both parties.<\/p>\n The vote set the stage for a lengthy vote-a-thon on a range of issues that is expected to culminate on Thursday in Senate passage of the immigration enforcement bill, which Republicans are pushing through Congress using special procedures that shield it from a filibuster. To do so, they will need near unanimity to overcome united Democratic opposition.<\/p>\n Even after sworn testimony on Tuesday by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, that the administration was not now \u2014 or ever \u2014 moving forward with the fund, a significant bloc of Republican senators still wanted to codify that statement in the bill. Some of them said their votes for the measure, which funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, were contingent on doing so.<\/p>\n It marked an unusual moment of proactive challenge to the president from Republican senators who have spent much of his second term simply falling in line behind him. Given that the legislation ultimately must be signed by Mr. Trump, it also set up a test of his willingness to stomach such pushback from Congress, or whether he would instead veto a measure to fund a centerpiece of his own agenda.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want to oppose the president just for the sake of opposing the president,\u201d said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina. But with one-third of Republican senators up for re-election in November, Mr. Tillis said there was simply no way to vote for the fund.<\/p>\n \u201cThe only way you can explain it, is explain that you got rid of it,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like there are people advising the president as if there is no election in November.\u201d<\/p>\n But the president continued to defend the fund. Not long after the Senate began debating the bill, Mr. Trump himself cast doubt on whether he had truly abandoned the fund, telling reporters at the White House that \u201cI love it\u201d and that \u201cit\u2019s so important.\u201d He said he was unsure of its fate.<\/p>\n