US immigration crackdown to intensify with $150 billion infusion

WASHINGTON — U.S. immigration enforcement is set for the most dramatic expansion in decades after the Republican-controlled Congress approved a budget bill that will fund President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans.

The sweeping legislation, which Trump said he wants to sign by Friday, allocates more than $150 billion for the administration’s border and immigration crackdown. Most of the money will go to the Department of Homeland Security and its enforcement arms, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

Coming on top of the agencies’ existing budgets, it’s an unprecedented funding surge that will supercharge efforts to build new detention centers, hire thousands of immigration agents and expand border wall construction.

The bill also raises costs for those trying to stay in the country legally, increasing fees for work permits, asylum applications and humanitarian protections. The changes are part of a legislative package that also includes cuts to Medicaid and other federal safety-net programs along with tax cuts.

“It’s beyond transformational,” said Gil Kerlikowske, head of CBP under President Barack Obama. “It places them into a whole new era.”

Border wall revival

One of Trump’s most iconic and divisive campaign promises — “Build the Wall” — is now back at the center of U.S. immigration policy. Although much of the roughly 450 miles (725 kilometers) of wall built during his first term replaced existing barriers, Trump is now eyeing fresh construction along vast stretches of the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

Backed by $46.5 billion in new funding, the administration has already begun fast-tracking wall contracts, including a $70 million award this spring to expand barriers in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, a once-busy corridor that now sees fewer than 45 illegal crossings per day. Another $309 million has been committed to a 27-mile stretch in Arizona’s Tucson sector, where arrests have plummeted from daily highs in the thousands to dozens per day, according to CBP figures.

Whether that much spending is warranted is up for debate. In June, DHS said arrests reached their lowest level in decades — a trend attributed to a combination of aggressive enforcement under Trump, Biden-era asylum restrictions still in place, and expanded Mexican policing efforts that stop migrants before they reach the U.S. border.

Detention surge

The new legislation earmarks $45 billion to expand federal immigration detention, a dramatic boost for ICE, which has struggled to find space for the growing number of people it’s being directed to arrest and hold under the Trump administration’s deportation strategy.

By late June, ICE was holding over 59,000 people in custody, well beyond its funded capacity of about 42,000 beds. This came as the agency, under pressure to meet a quota of at least 3,000 arrests per day, has been conducting raids on workplaces, at courthouses and around migrant gathering points in cities from Los Angeles to New York.

To accommodate the overflow, a new Florida state-run facility was opened this month in the remote Everglades, composed primarily of tents and trailers and dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” for its swampy location.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers in May that the administration wanted to more than double the number of immigration jail beds nationwide.

Meanwhile, oversight of detention facilities is dwindling. Earlier this year, DHS shuttered its internal detention monitoring office. Lawmakers are now weighing whether to permanently eliminate the office’s funding — a move that has alarmed civil rights groups.

ICE expansion

ICE — the U.S. agency most closely associated with the mechanics of deportation — will also see a $30 billion infusion, three times its annual budget.

The money will be used to expand arrest and removal operations, hire more deportation officers and government attorneys, scale up technology and bolster transportation for detainees. The agency has already been relying on personnel from other agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service and National Guard units in LA, to support operations.

Now, with tens of billions earmarked for hiring and training, ICE is expected to significantly expand beyond its current roster of about 6,000 agents.

The White House says there’ll be funding for 10,000 new ICE positions and $10,000 annual bonuses over the next four years.

Border patrol hiring

The bill sets aside another $6.1 billion for Border Patrol and customs officer hiring, aiming to lock in recent gains in border enforcement. The White House says the funding could support 8,000 additional hires across both agencies, along with bonuses.

But even with money in hand, the Border Patrol has long struggled to fill vacancies. Extensive background checks and a rigorous training academy have historically slowed recruitment efforts.

“Money doesn’t always solve everything,” said Theresa Cardinal Brown, a DHS official during the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. “There’s logistics involved: the processes to recruit, hire, to go through the background checks and clearances and to then go through the academy.”

Border state reimbursements

The package includes a $13.5 billion fund to reimburse state and local governments for their border security efforts since 2021.

Texas stands to gain the most, with Republican Governor Greg Abbott seeking more than $11 billion to recover the cost of building state-funded border barriers and personnel expenses. Abbott said he spent millions of dollars busing and flying more than 120,000 migrants to US cities like New York and Chicago and as far away as China and Russia.

Other states can apply for reimbursement for expenses tied to border operations or policing unauthorized immigrants who have committed crimes.

The fund is seen as a victory for border communities that had frequently clashed with the Biden administration over taking enforcement into their own hands.

Immigration fees

To help pay for the expanded enforcement regime, Republicans are targeting immigrants themselves. Proposed new and increased fees on applications for legal status, asylum and work permits could raise tens of billions of dollars of additional revenue a year.

The bill proposes, among other things, imposing a minimum $100 fee to apply for asylum, $550 for employee authorization applications, $500 for Temporary Protected Status and $1,000 for most humanitarian parole applications, along with a fine of $5,000 for anyone caught crossing the border between ports of entry.

Fee waivers for low-income applicants would be eliminated in most cases, a shift that immigrant advocates say could put legal pathways out of financial reach for many.

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