Senate Republicans abruptly abandoned plans to take up a filibuster-proof bill on Thursday to fund President Trump’s immigration crackdown, a stunning turn demonstrating that members of his own party were not willing to risk politically toxic votes to advance the president’s personal agenda.
Though senators had widely been expected to bring their legislation to the floor before a weeklong recess, as Mr. Trump had demanded, G.O.P. leaders were unable to overcome deep concerns within their own ranks around the president’s plan to use a federal fund to pay people who claim to have been politically persecuted.
While the measure could still be taken up when lawmakers return, the delay underscored a toxic dynamic between the White House and the Republican-controlled Congress just months before the midterm elections.
Republicans had already appeared ready to jettison the White House’s request to include $1 billion for Mr. Trump’s ballroom project from the bill, after a small group of senators made clear they would not vote to advance it.
But there was even wider opposition to a Justice Department fund that Mr. Trump has said he wants to use to pay people who claim to have been unfairly targeted by the government. As Republicans discussed a way to curb that fund, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, traveled to the Capitol and met with them for roughly two hours behind closed doors.
The private meeting was highly contentious, according to people familiar with the session, who said that Mr. Blanche did not clarify any details on how the fund might be implemented or offer satisfying answers to questions from many senators about the lack of guardrails around the money.
“It is in real trouble — and it should be,” Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said in an interview shortly after leaving the session.
Not long afterward, several Republican senators said that they would leave Washington on Thursday without taking up the immigration legislation.
The reservations in Republican ranks have been exacerbated by senators’ widespread frustration over Mr. Trump’s retribution-driven intervention in G.O.P. primaries, which has threatened incumbents, and political concerns that appearing to rubber-stamp the president’s pet projects could cost them support in competitive midterm elections.
Across the Capitol, lawmakers in the House faced their own politically thorny vote late Thursday afternoon: a resolution that would direct Mr. Trump to end the war in Iran or seek authorization from Congress to continue the military offensive. A similar measure failed on a tie vote last week, as Republican backing grew.
Both measures have set up a critical stress test for Republicans. Facing strong electoral headwinds, vulnerable lawmakers would prefer to focus on low-stakes legislation and partisan messaging bills. But they will instead be forced to pit political calculations against Mr. Trump’s demand for absolute loyalty.
Passing a filibuster-proof bill so close to Election Day was always going to be a difficult task for Republicans. Though immigration has long been among the party’s top-polling issues, the G.O.P. lost considerable support with voters after the killing of two American citizens by immigration officers in Minnesota.
After Congress approved a spending bill that did not fund immigration enforcement operations, Mr. Trump urged Congress to pass legislation that would do so by June 1. But the president made that task exponentially more difficult by insisting that the measure, which provides $72 billion for immigration enforcement, also allocate $1 billion for security enhancements for his prized White House ballroom project.
Polling shows that the ballroom is unpopular with voters, and several senators have publicly opposed the funding. Many moderate Republicans in the House in competitive races also warned that they did not want to vote on the funding.
Senate Democrats signaled that they planned to exploit the tension between Mr. Trump and Republicans over the ballroom project and the Justice Department fund, which they criticize as an act of political corruption meant to benefit Mr. Trump and his allies.
Several Republican senators publicly and privately have expressed worry that the fund would be used to provide money to people who attacked police officers during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and were later pardoned by Mr. Trump. Lawmakers were both targets of and witnesses to the assault that day, and it remains a deeply emotional issue for many of them.
The process that Republicans are using to muscle their immigration enforcement legislation through the Senate free of a filibuster, known as budget reconciliation, would allow Democrats to force a series of votes on both issues and many more during a marathon debate.
Democrats have promised to force a vote on the Justice Department fund during debate on the legislation. Republicans were exploring adding a measure to the immigration bill to limit the fund, in part because leaders were worried that if they did not, a Democratic bid to kill it could draw enough G.O.P. support to succeed.
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said that Republicans were trapped in a problem of their own making.
“They’re just stuck because they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” he said. “They’re damned if they side with Trump, because the American people hate what Trump is doing, by and large.”
Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said senators would “pick up where we left off” when they return to Washington in early June.
Asked if a resolution could be reached, he said: “That’s what I’m counting on.”
Megan Mineiro contributed reporting.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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