Senate Moves to Dump $70 Billion More Into ICE and CBP Without Any Oversight

The Senate is barreling ahead with a proposal to allocate roughly $70 billion more to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), on top of the $170 billion these agencies received just last year. This is not your typical budget negotiation. Instead, lawmakers are exploiting the budget reconciliation process to push through massive funding without the usual bipartisan debate or oversight.

Reconciliation allows legislation to pass with a simple majority, sidestepping the 60-vote filibuster threshold. This is the second time Congress is using this tactic to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its enforcement arms. Despite Democrats' efforts since February to demand meaningful reforms—like stronger warrant requirements and professional law enforcement standards to curb the agencies’ deadly abuses—those attempts have been flatly rejected.

The proposed bill would grant ICE $38.2 billion to boost enforcement operations, including hiring more personnel, expanding detention facilities, and funding controversial 287(g) agreements that deputize local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. A staggering $7.5 billion is earmarked for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations to pursue “non-immigration” cases. CBP would receive $26 billion for personnel, technology upgrades, and border enforcement, including screening unaccompanied children.

Beyond that, DHS would get $5 billion in broadly defined “slush” funds, similar to the $10 billion it received last year under the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). DHS has already shown a disturbing pattern of using these funds with little accountability, such as diverting money to pay employee salaries during government shutdowns. The Department of Justice also stands to gain $1.5 billion to enforce immigration laws.

ICE and CBP are already among the most heavily funded law enforcement agencies in the federal government. This new infusion would nearly quadruple ICE’s annual budget from fiscal year 2025. Combined with last year’s $75 billion, ICE will have access to over eleven times its 2025 budget through 2029. The Congressional Budget Office warns that the open-ended nature of this funding means agencies could spend it at any pace, with no guardrails.

This is more than just numbers on a page. ICE has already demonstrated a reckless spending spree, rushing to convert warehouses into detention centers with $38 billion of last year’s OBBBA funds. DHS officials recently boasted they expect to obligate 75% of these funds by September 2024—showing a clear intent to expand enforcement infrastructure rapidly.

CBP’s funding would balloon to 3.5 times its 2025 budget, again with no restrictions on how quickly the money can be spent. DHS’s additional $5 billion pot also comes with vague spending guidelines, leaving room for the administration to interpret how to use the funds without meaningful congressional checks.

The consequences of this funding frenzy extend beyond immigration enforcement. Allocating billions more to ICE and CBP means slashing investments in critical domestic programs. The $70 billion could instead fund:

• Four years of biomedical research
  
• Five years of higher education grants
  
• Six years of energy assistance for low-income families
  
• Fourteen years of workforce development through Job Corps
  
• Seventy-three years of preschool grants
  
• Two hundred forty-two years of rural health programs
  

Instead, taxpayer dollars are being funneled into expanding an aggressive, often abusive immigration enforcement machine with a track record of civil rights violations, deaths in custody, and family separations.

By circumventing the annual appropriations process, Congress is handing ICE and CBP a multi-year, lump-sum blank check with minimal oversight or opportunity for course correction. This reckless approach not only entrenches a system rife with misconduct but also signals a dangerous disregard for democratic accountability.

The Senate’s push to bankroll ICE and CBP without accountability measures is a stark reminder: the fight for immigrant rights and government transparency is far from over. We must demand that taxpayer dollars support humane policies and essential public services—not unchecked enforcement that tears communities apart.