Overview
- ICE and Border Patrol will receive $170 billion in additional funding through September 2029, on top of roughly $19 billion in combined annual budgets.
- Officials plan thousands of new hires, expanded detention capacity, increased pickups from local jails, and partnerships with private firms to locate people without legal status.
- The 2026 strategy includes more workplace raids, with border czar Tom Homan saying arrests will “explode” as staffing and detention capacity grow.
- Since January about 622,000 people have been deported, and ICE data show roughly 41% of late‑November detainees had no criminal record beyond suspected immigration violations, which has fueled political pushback including a Democratic mayoral win in Miami and a drop in Trump’s immigration approval rating.
- The Labor Department has submitted to OMB a proposal to tighten wage protections for H‑1B and PERM visas, a shift that could raise employer costs and reshape hiring.