New Funding Increases Immigration Enforcement

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A new law gives federal agencies $170,000,000,000 ($170 billion) for anti-immigrant enforcement, detention, and deportation. The law is called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” or OBBBA, for short. This money makes the U.S. immigration enforcement agencies richer than many nations’ entire military force. It allows the federal government to step up attacks on the rights of immigrants, especially children and families.  

Where does the $170 billion go? 

This money goes to federal agencies, with the largest amounts to Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), including:  

• $30 billion to detain and deport more immigrants, more quickly   

• $45 billion to build new immigrant detention facilities 

• $47 billion to build more border walls and other barriers 

• $16 billion for increased border security, including surveillance and technology 

• $14 billion for state and local agencies that participate in immigration enforcement  

• $12 billion for more Border Patrol checkpoints, vehicles, and agents 

An additional $11 billion goes to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Prisons for uses including immigration enforcement and detention. 

The Office of Refugee Resettlement gets $330 million for extreme vetting of unaccompanied children and their sponsors. 

How will the agencies use this money? 

Agencies can mostly choose how and where to spend this money, but the law gives some instructions for how money should be used, including: 

• Fingerprinting and DNA analysis of families arriving at the border  

• Additional screening for people coming to the U.S.  

• Remain in Mexico, a policy that forces migrants to wait for their U.S. court cases in Mexico, a human rights catastrophe 

• Sending unaccompanied children back to their country without seeing a judge  

• Allowing state and local law enforcement to enforce immigration laws (287(g) program), and paying them for participating in immigration enforcement  

• Allowing more deportations without seeing a judge and using secret evidence in some cases 

• Physical exams of children who arrive at the U.S. border without a parent or guardian  

• Detaining children with their parents while the parent is prosecuted for illegal entry  

• Creating the “Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office,” a political tool to scare immigrants  

The Department of Justice (DOJ) can use money for:  

• Investigating immigration-related offenses, such as unauthorized entry, failure to register, and voting by non-citizens  

• Crime prevention programs, including programs for immigration enforcement and deportation  

• Pay states and cities that put certain immigrants in jail 

How does the bill expand immigrant detention? 

The law provides funding for federal, state, and local authorities to detain adults and children, including new forms of family detention. The bill provides $45 billion for immigrant detention for single adults and families. It also creates a new form of family detention, where parents can be detained with their children while they are prosecuted for unauthorized entry. The funds provided to the Department of Defense and states and localities also may be used for detention-related activities. 

How are immigrant children and families treated? 

This law causes suffering and life-long trauma to children and families as: 

• Entire families (including children and babies) can be placed and kept in detention for however long their immigration cases take. 

• Border patrol agents can physically examine children as young as 12 (and children of any age may be examined if they are in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody). The government says they are checking for tattoos and gang-related markings. 

How do state and local authorities get money to detain immigrants? 

The bill gives $14 billion for state and local governments to do border and immigration enforcement, including: 

• Funds to DHS and to ICE for 287(g) agreements, and to pay states and local agencies for: 

• • immigration enforcement,  

• • criminal and gang investigations, and  
  • jailing non-citizens convicted of certain crimes 

• $13.5 billion for grants to state and local governments for immigration enforcement, building border walls and barriers, detaining immigrants, and potentially for building state-run immigration jails  

• $450 million for Operation Stonegarden to pay state and local governments that cooperate with border enforcement  

• More money for crime prevention programs in states and cities that give federal agencies information about immigrants

Immigrants and their supporters can read NILC’s Know Your Rights for their safety.