ICE gets $75B boost
Congress approved a roughly $75 billion package that has insulated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and kept its operations running despite a prolonged Department of Homeland Security shutdown. Reporters say the appropriation makes enforcement capacity unusually resilient to ordinary political disruption, changing assumptions about how interruptions in Washington affect on‑the‑ground activity. (kpbs.org)
Congress gave U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement $75 billion last year, and that money has kept deportation operations running through the Department of Homeland Security shutdown. (kpbs.org) The new money came through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, on top of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s usual annual budget of about $8 billion to $10 billion. Marketplace reported in January that the $75 billion can be used over four years. (marketplace.org) By early April, the Department of Homeland Security funding lapse had stretched to 47 days, and National Public Radio reported on April 13 that it reached 59 days. House and Senate Republicans said on April 1 they had a plan to reopen most of the department while pursuing separate multiyear funding for immigration enforcement. (kpbs.org) (vpm.org) The practical effect is that a shutdown that would usually squeeze an agency’s daily operations has not done that to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. CBS News reported in January that the agency and Customs and Border Protection could keep operating uninterrupted even if other Homeland Security functions lost funding. (cbsnews.com) Congressional Democrats have tried to use the shutdown fight to win limits on enforcement tactics after two fatal shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis pushed immigration policing to the center of the spending battle. Their demands included stricter warrant rules, a mask ban, and body-camera requirements, according to Marketplace and CBS News. (marketplace.org) (cbsnews.com) But Democrats’ own appropriations summaries said a lapse would not stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection. Senate appropriators wrote that the agencies could keep using the earlier windfall while the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, and other Department of Homeland Security components were shuttered or working without pay. (appropriations.senate.gov) House Democratic appropriators said the same dynamic would let Immigration and Customs Enforcement “sustain regular operations for multiple years” during a funding lapse. Their proposal would have cut Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcement and removal funding by $115 million, reduced detention beds by 5,500, and added oversight through the inspector general and civil-rights offices. (democrats-appropriations.house.gov) Republicans argued for separating the immigration agencies from the rest of the department and funding them for longer. In an April 1 statement reported by KPBS, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune said they wanted immigration enforcement and border security funded for the next three years so those activities could continue “uninhibited.” (kpbs.org) Legal scholars told Marketplace that holding up Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s yearly appropriation would normally be a major financial blow, but the 2025 law changed that math. The result is a shutdown fight in which airport screeners, disaster programs, and other Homeland Security operations face pressure before the deportation system does. (marketplace.org) (cbsnews.com)
