US President Donald Trump has signed a $70 billion funding bill for immigration enforcement, ending a months-long standoff with Democrats after the killing of two Americans.
The bill signed into law Wednesday will fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for at least the remainder of President Trump’s term.
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That’s on top of the $140 billion financial windfall that agencies received as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a tax and spending bill that Congress passed last July.
ICE and CBP are both under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). At a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, President Trump accused Democrats of ulterior motives in trying to block funding for DHS.
“Democrats in Congress tried to block all funding to the Department of Homeland Security in a reprehensible attempt to open America’s borders,” President Trump said. “They want to drag us back into a world of chaos and crime.”
Immigration has dominated President Trump’s re-election campaign, with the Republican leader returning to office for a second term on a promise to tackle a campaign of mass deportations.
Although the administration initially said it would only target criminals, the strategy was soon expanded to include individuals with no criminal record.
Immigration advocates have accused the government of using “dragnet” techniques to increase the number of detainees while rolling back legal protections for foreign nationals to increase the number of people subject to deportation.
The first nine months of President Trump’s second term saw an 11 times increase in ICE street arrests compared to the final months of President Joe Biden’s term, according to the advocacy group Legal Defense Fund.
This includes a sevenfold increase in the number of people arrested without a criminal record.
Rights groups have accused ICE and CBP of using racial profiling, excessive force and unconstitutional tactics to expand detention. These tactics include warrantless searches and prohibiting immigrants from exercising their due process rights.
However, the Trump administration rejected these claims.
political conflict
Despite the criticism, Democratic leaders initially supported a $70 billion funding bill that would further boost the status of ICE and CBP.
But the party reversed course after the killings of two Americans, Renee Goode and Alex Preti, in January. They were shot and killed as part of an immigration enforcement operation called Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
In the aftermath of these killings, Democrats pledged to oppose any new immigration enforcement funding if such legislation does not include safeguards against police conduct.
The conflict led to an impasse over whether to approve DHS funding.
With the funding bill pending in Congress, the agency was forced to close non-essential operations for 76 days, leading to staffing battles among agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
Lawmakers ultimately separated funding for ICE and CBP from legislation for funding other DHS agencies. The latter was approved in April. But Democrats continued to block new funding legislation for ICE and CBP.
In the end, Wednesday’s $70 billion bill was passed only after Republicans pursued a weeks-long “budget reconciliation” process that allowed them to pass the bill with a simple majority in the Senate, as opposed to the 60 votes typically needed to get past the filibuster.
Republicans currently hold 53 seats in the 100-member House. They also hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, which passed the bill on Tuesday.
Murad Awaudeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an immigrant rights nonprofit, was among the leaders who denounced the new funding.
“This taxpayer-funded windfall is built on the false premise that scapegoating and targeting immigrants will improve public safety and improve the lives of millions of Americans,” he said in a statement.
He said the funding would “give ICE permission to return to the illegal and violent practices we’ve seen in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and across the country, destabilizing communities, tearing families apart, and tearing families apart.”
