Amidst ICE and CBP’s brutal violence, Congress is planning to give them even more money

Update: On January 22, the House passed the FY2026 DHS Funding Bill by a vote of 220-207. Now, the bill will head to the Senate, who could vote as soon as Tuesday, the 27th. NILC demands that Senators refuse to provide one dollar to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol through the appropriations process and immediately take action to revoke the tens of billions already given through last summer’s reconciliation bill.

As a part of the 2026 appropriations process, House representatives could vote as soon as January 22 on more funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Senate may vote as soon as the following week. Here’s what you need to know about the fiscal year 2026 Department of Homeland Security funding bill and what we must do to stop it.

What’s in the FY2026 DHS Funding Bill:

• $400 million more for ICE’s detention budget, an increase from $3.4 billion to $3.8 billion.
  This money enables ICE to continue to massively expand its detention infrastructure across local, state, and federal jails, military bases, warehouses, and more. ICE is already jailing more than 70,000 people, including 6,000 people in harmful family detention facilities.
• $370 million more for ICE’s enforcement budget, an increase from $5.08 billion to $5.45 billion.
  ICE and CBP agents are shooting people in broad daylight, violently targeting peaceful protestors, and invading people’s homes without warrants. If our elected representatives hand over even more funding, without securing any new accountability measures, it’s essentially an invitation for ICE and CBP to continue to violate our rights.

This money comes on top of the unprecedented $170 billion DHS got for anti-immigrant enforcement through the 2025 reconciliation bill (H.R. 1, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”), paid for by cutting health care and nutrition assistance.

What’s Not in the Bill:

Following ICE and CBP’s recent violence, tens of thousands of people have demanded that our representatives use the budget process to rein in these out-of-control agencies. At a bare minimum, we identified that Congress should block immigration enforcement’s racist targeting, end the ever-expanding role of border patrol, and limit DHS’s ability to usurp money from other programs for enforcement.

This bill fails to do any of the above.

Instead, the bill includes money to buy more body cameras for ICE officers, despite the fact that ICE and CBP agents already break the law while they are being recorded. 

The bill includes funds for the DHS Office of the Inspector General to inspect detention facilities but does not provide accountability measures to force ICE to respond to the OIG’s findings. DHS has – for years – ignored the existing documentation of horrific conditions in immigration detention, and nothing in the bill indicates this will change.

Finally, the bill requires that ICE agents and officers be trained on allowing their operations to be filmed, as protected under the First Amendment. This is simply a restatement of the law. Nothing in the bill holds officers accountable for when they violate those rights.

We Demand Real Action. Not Optics.

Congressional leaders may attempt to pair DHS funding with funding for the Department of Health and Human Services.

This is a political maneuver meant to divide us.

Our leaders can and should shape a budget that puts communities first by standing up to DHS’s abuse and funding critical social programs.