Trump wins $70B of guaranteed funding for immigration crackdown

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Republicans’ decision to greenlight $70 billion for immigration enforcement over three years has cleared the way for President Donald Trump to pursue his mass deportation agenda for the rest of his term, even if the GOP loses control of Congress in the midterm elections this fall.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection now have free rein through fiscal year 2029 to continue building the nation’s largest-ever detention system, bolster the ranks of federal immigration officers and purchase surveillance and screening technology that could impact undocumented immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens.

ICE and CBP will also be allowed to continue spending money on Trump’s goal of deporting 1 million immigrants a year in the event of future congressional budget standoffs like the one this spring that forced the Department of Homeland Security to shut down some operations for 76 days. The GOP’s spending plan simultaneously limits congressional oversight by eliminating the annual appropriations process that required bipartisan agreement.

Republicans “are doing this because they do not want Dems to have the ability to influence ICE operations for the remainder of Trump’s term,” said John Sandweg, who served as acting ICE director in the Obama administration. “Having an appropriations process influences your thinking. I’d go up there every year to defend our budget and respond to the demands of the appropriators. It provides another layer of oversight.”

The GOP advanced the spending plan through budget reconciliation, avoiding the threat of a filibuster and the need for support from Democrats, who had sought new restrictions on immigration officers after the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. Only one Senate Republican, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against the measure.

Immigrant rights advocates denounced the outcome, saying it would give ICE and CBP unbridled authority to push through Trump’s mass deportation campaign, even as polling shows the public has soured on the aggressive tactics being deployed.

“There is no question that this bill passing will make it incredibly difficult to reverse the creation of a huge deportation machine at the hands of President Trump,” said Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council.

She said the funding will turn DHS’s immigration enforcement operation “into the size of a small military force. We are incredibly concerned that this is the second reconciliation package that effectively gives ICE and CBP another multibillion slush fund for aggressive immigration enforcement.”

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said he was “very reluctant” to move the immigration enforcement funding through reconciliation but blamed Democrats for misusing the filibuster and forcing his hand. Rep. Nick LaLota (R-New York) called the reconciliation bill a “last-ditch effort” as the two parties couldn’t find common ground.

The House voted 214-212 along party lines to advance the immigration enforcement package after Republicans overcame a brief delay earlier in the day. The bill now goes to Trump to sign into law.

Reps. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) initially voted against the rule to proceed to the package, but later changed their votes. Both said they sought promises from leadership to bring up a measure to codify Trump’s immigration policies into law.

Roy told reporters that leadership assured him that legislation which includes elements of HR 2, a sweeping immigration enforcement and border security measure introduced during the last Congress, would be brought to the floor in the next few weeks.

Democrats had withheld support for the funding package, demanding restrictions on the use of force, prohibitions against federal officers wearing face masks, bans on raids at schools and churches and requirements that officers obtain judicial warrants before entering private residences without permission.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took over in March after Trump fired Kristi L. Noem, has pledged to enact some changes aimed at restoring public confidence in DHS.

The agency has reversed guidelines issued under Noem that allowed immigration officers to enter private residences with administrative warrants, approved by ICE officials, Mullin said. In July, ICE will revert to long-standing requirements that new officers undergo 72 days of training, a regime that was shortened to 42 days last year.

ICE has said it hired 12,000 new officers last year, increasing personnel by 120 percent to more than 22,000 employees. DHS is moving forward with its $38 billion plan to convert warehouses into immigration detention centers in at least 11 U.S. cities, despite mounting legal challenges and a government watchdog probe into the agency’s purchases of the buildings.

The administration said it deported more than 600,000 immigrants in Trump’s first year, a figure that includes individuals sent home after being apprehended at the U.S. border and those deported from the interior of the country. Federal data show ICE alone deported about 443,000 people in fiscal 2025, up from 221,000 a year earlier.

Trump aides have set a goal of 1 million deportations annually. Some conservative groups have ramped up pressure on Mullin to step up the effort, citing concerns that DHS is going soft on its mass deportation agenda amid the backlash over enforcement tactics.

Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group that favors low immigration rates, disputed the idea that the GOP spending plan will reduce congressional oversight.

“Congress still has its oversight powers to call people in and question them,” he said. “But the conditions the Democrats were demanding would have tied the hands of immigration enforcement. [Republicans] were not prepared to go back to that.”

While most GOP members were united behind the need to fund the immigration enforcement agencies, a few raised concerns about using reconciliation to do so. This is the first time the fast-track budget process has been used to replace a federal agency’s normal appropriations and avoid the potential for a government shutdown.

“This measure weakens the normal budgeting process and sets another precedent for avoiding it when we find ourselves in disagreement,” Murkowski wrote in a statement on X last week. “In doing so, it reduces Congress’ ability to apply reasonable checks on immigration policy for the remainder of this administration and into the next.”

Rep. Kevin Kiley (I-California), who caucuses with House Republicans and voted against the funding package Tuesday, expressed “very grave concerns.” He said in an interview that he supports making changes to immigration enforcement, including requiring officers to identify themselves and wear mandatory body cameras.

“I thought we had a golden opportunity to come together as Congress to implement those reforms, and to rebuild trust,” Kiley said. Approving the money through reconciliation is ”a very bad thing for the country on this issue, and I think it’s a bad precedent going forward for the way Congress works.”

Jarrell Dillard reports on economic policy in Congress for The Washington Post. David Nakamura covers the Justice Department with a focus on civil rights. He has previously covered the White House, sports, education, city government and foreign affairs.