Washington, D.C. — Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) funnels an unprecedented $75 billion into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with no accountability or guardrails. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) can use this funding to further escalate the administration’s unprecedented and indiscriminate deportation agenda that separates families, detains students and children, and terrorizes communities. A new report from the Center for American Progress details how by supercharging the Trump administration’s deportation agenda, the OBBBA threatens local communities and economies across the United States.
ICE is already operating with impunity in response to the Trump administration’s demand to arrest 3,000 immigrants per day. The deployment of the National Guard to support federal immigration officials in Los Angeles and the nation’s capital has spread fear in local immigrant communities. And with no end in sight to the administration’s cruel and unwise policies, the full extent of the economic and human impact on families and communities will only multiply as the OBBBA funds are expended. In fact, ICE’s annual budget will nearly triple—from approximately $9.9 billion to $28 billion. At the same time, the administration has essentially dismantled the congressionally created watchdog agencies that provided oversight of DHS. The report demonstrates the need for Congress to hold the Trump administration accountable for its reckless and indiscriminate immigration enforcement actions.
Specifically, the report outlines several frightening and wide-ranging uses of the OBBBA funds, which provide $45 billion to expand ICE’s detention capacity to 100,000 beds and nearly $30 billion to dramatically increase ICE’s personnel and enforcement operations. These funds will:
- Turbocharge the rampant and reckless targeting of immigrants for arbitrary arrests and detentions by ICE agents who are often masked and unidentifiable.
- Dramatically increase the detention of people in inhumane conditions at private facilities with insufficient oversight.
- Likely lead to a massive financial windfall for private prison companies, since nearly 90 percent of immigrants in ICE custody are held in private facilities.
The report also lays out the widespread harm of the Trump administration’s aggressive enforcement tactics on people, communities, and the economy:
- Undocumented immigrants make up an estimated 45 percent of the agricultural workforce, and an estimated 1.6 million undocumented immigrants work in construction. The Trump administration’s deportation efforts will drain workers from these critical fields, harming housing and infrastructure projects while also driving up food costs.
- Immigrants contributed an estimated $29.3 billion to state and local taxes in 2022, and small businesses across the country report that the administration’s reckless enforcement tactics have led to drops in sales as immigrant families stay home for fear of detention.
- The OBBBA’s blank check to fund the administration’s mass deportation agenda will escalate indiscriminate immigration raids, ensnaring long-time immigrants and tearing families apart.
Giving the Trump administration a slush fund for ICE to operate above the law and arrest anyone—even those who have contributed to our country for years and pose no threat—is not the answer to secure the border and fix our broken immigration system. A secure border is mandatory for a functioning, efficient immigration system, but, as the report underscores, an actual solution to fix what’s broken must also respect due process and the rule of law; reflect our values; and strengthen the American economy and local communities.
Read the report: “Congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act Creates an Unaccountable Slush Fund for the Trump administration’s Deportation Force” by Rosa Barrientos-Ferrer, Ben Greenho, and Silva Mathema
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For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Rafael Medina at [email protected].