On June 10, 2026, President Donald Trump signed legislation allocating $70 billion over the next three years for immigration enforcement and detention. In this photo, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer watches a crowd outside Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey, on May 25, 2026. (Photo by Ben Ackman/New Jersey Monitor)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump significantly increased funding for immigration enforcement on Wednesday as he signed a nearly $70 billion package designed to keep key federal agencies operating without recent restrictions.
Democrats pushed for guardrails after immigration agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis in January. But when talks failed, Republican lawmakers drafted their own bill without further restrictions.
“The bill provides critical funding for domestic law enforcement investigations and combating child exploitation, and continues our work to restore law and order to our country and protect America’s youth,” Trump said during an event in the Oval Office.
The measure passed Congress this month, with nearly all Republicans voting to approve the additional spending, which will last through September 2029.
Democratic lawmakers argued Immigration officers should adhere to standards followed by other federal law enforcement agencies, such as wearing body cameras, obtaining a warrant before entering a person’s home, and identifying themselves by removing their mask.
Republican leaders said during talks they were open to restricting the behavior of immigration officials but opted not to include restrictions in their partisan bill.
ICE, CBP funded
The bill will provide an additional $38.53 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Customs and Border Protection will receive an additional $26.02 billion and the Secretary of Homeland Security will receive an additional $5 billion in funding.
The money is in addition to the Republicans’ $170 billion contain in their “big, beautiful” law, as well as in funding approved included in the annual DHS appropriations package.
Almost every Republican in the House of Representatives coordinated to approve the measure despite New Jersey Representative Thomas H. Kean, Jr., who was absent due to an undisclosed illness, and South Carolina Representatives Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, who were running in their states Governor’s primarymissed the vote.
Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican vote against When passing the legislation in this chamber, negotiators should have issued a statement crafting a bipartisan solution in the annual funding bill instead of using it the elaborate process of budget reconciliation to bypass procedural votes that would otherwise have required the support of 60 senators.
“By choosing to allocate funds for three fiscal years instead of one year, this action weakens the normal budgeting process and sets another precedent for avoiding it when we disagree,” she wrote. “This will limit Congress’s ability to provide adequate oversight of immigration policy for the remainder of this administration and the next.”
Murkowski added that she would have voted for the package if it had “provided one year’s worth of immigration funds, included clear limits on how those funds could be spent, and eliminated any possibility of taxpayer dollars going to the administration’s brazen ‘anti-gun’ fund.”
This $1.776 billion account would have paid compensation to people who believe they were unfairly persecuted by the Justice Department. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated Before Congress, the administration had no plans to move forward with the proposal after Republicans on Capitol Hill expressed opposition.
However, Trump has not completely withdrawn his support for the fund, he said an NBC News interview this weekend that he and other Republicans believe it is “a great idea.”
“You have to get it approved,” he said. “If they get it approved, that’s great. If they don’t approve it, I’d be disappointed.”
