Washington, DC — The Senate passed the Trump and MAGA-backed megabill that will substantially increase Trump’s cruel mass detention and deportation agenda and make Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) the largest interior law enforcement agency in the US. The bill provides a shocking $150 billion for immigration enforcement – the targeting, detention, and deportation of people – including $45 billion for ICE to detain families and adults over the next four years at the expense of vital programs for all Americans. The bill now moves back to the House for a final vote.
The distribution of funds related to detention and immigration enforcement, include:
- $45 billion for ICE detention, including to detain both single adults and families
- $59 billion to militarize the border, including funding for border wall construction, CBP agents and vehicles, and border surveillance technology
- $30 billion to expand ICE enforcement that will further the Trump administration’s cruelty, including for hiring additional ICE personnel, deporting and disappearing immigrants and migrants, including unaccompanied children and more
- $10 billion for a grant program designed to reimburse states who enact anti-immigrant policies
- $1 billion to the Department of Defense to deploy military personnel to the border and to detain migrants
Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network, offered the following statement:
“This bill will go down in history as a seismic failure and stain on our nation’s history. It directs billions of taxpayer dollars toward cruel and callous immigration enforcement at the expense of critical programs that support millions of Americans, including Medicaid, food assistance, and clean energy. People are struggling right now – and instead of halting Trump’s obsessively cruel mass detention and deportation agenda, members of the Congress have greenlit a cash infusion to supercharge it and cause immeasurable harm.
This bill skyrockets ICE’s budget to never before seen funding levels and will make it the largest law enforcement agency in the country. ICE will now have 13 times its current fiscal budget for detention, which is already operating at a historic high, on top of the funding in ICE’s annual budget that Congress sets each year. The funding windfall, which will radically expand immigrant detention, is an accelerant for the Trump administration’s authoritarianism.
This bill will destabilize entire communities by causing the separation of loved ones, food insecurity and loss of healthcare coverage for families, and abuse and death of immigrants at an unimaginable scope and scale. More than 59,000 people are now in ICE custody, the highest number in history. Trump's cruel detention expansion is exacerbating inhumane conditions, with increasing reports of death, medical neglect, overcrowding, lack of food, and rampant transfers that sow confusion and cut people off from their loved ones and support networks.
It is shocking to see our elected officials prioritize transferring assets to the wealthy and corporations over the wellbeing of their constituents, including immigrants who are vital and valued members of our communities. Now more than ever, we need real leaders who aren’t afraid to unite against Trump and advocate for the rights and dignity of everyone, including immigrants.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.