The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday advanced a 69.5-billion-U.S.dollar funding package for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, days after missing President Donald Trump's self-set June 1 deadline.
The lower chamber approved the procedural measure by a vote of 213-211, after the U.S. Senate passed the bill on Friday.
Democrats have pushed for reforms to ICE operations following the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis in January, but Republicans have repeatedly rejected their demands, resulting in a deadlock in negotiations over funding of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which led to a record 76-day shutdown of the department.
On April 30, Trump signed a bill to fund most of the DHS, including the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. That bill, however, did not include funding for the department's immigration enforcement agencies.
U.S. House narrowly advances ICE, Border Patrol funding bill
China has recorded ten consecutive quarters of growth in imports and exports with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the data for the second quarter of this year from the General Administration of Customs GAC) showed on Tuesday.
China's trade with ASEAN reached 4.34 trillion yuan (about 640 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2026, marking an 18.2-percent increase compared to the same period of last year, according to GAC.
"In the first half of this year, China's imports and exports with ASEAN stood at 4.34 trillion yuan, up 18.2 percent year on year on. Of this total, imports and exports in the second quarter accounted for 2.37 trillion yuan which represented a year-on-year growth of 20.2 percent and marking the 10th consecutive quarter of growth.," said Lyu Daliang, a spokesman for the customs bureau, at a press briefing.
"China and ASEAN have continuously strengthened infrastructure connectivity. In the first half of the year, China's imports and exports with ASEAN via the new western land-sea corridor grew by 18.2 percent, with railway and highway transport increasing by 24.7 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively," Lyu said.
Established in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Timor-Leste.
China records ten consecutive quarters of trade growth with ASEAN
