Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deported 545,252 people from the US between 2021 and 2024, according to its data, including 271,484 last year.
The Trump administration wants to deport one million people per year. To that end, there’s $75 billion for ICE in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law earlier this month. This includes:
- $45 billion to expand the agency’s “detention capacity,” including building new ICE prisons (see Section 90003 of the bill).
- $30 billion for bonus pay for ICE personnel; recruiting, hiring, and training new personnel; additional facilities, vehicles, and funding for “enforcement and removal operations” (see Section 100052).
The actual total is likely higher than $75 billion. While that’s the amount specifically designated for ICE in the legislative text, there are sections of the reconciliation bill that allow the Trump administration to direct billions more to the agency if it wants to. These sections effectively form a slush fund for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) leadership. Here are two examples that immediately come to mind:
- Section 100051 provides $2.1 billion to DHS, the cabinet department that houses ICE. While this section doesn’t explicitly say any of the funding is for ICE, of its twelve listed purposes, four involve removals, which ICE manages.
- Section 90007 provides $10 billion to DHS for “undertaking activities in support of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to safeguard the border of the United States.”
That second one basically says nothing and is the extent of the details — and guardrails — for the $10 billion provision. I’m not kidding; here’s the entire section:
With this $75 billion in extra funding, the Trump…
Auteur: Stephen Semler
