Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal law enforcement agency primarily tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda, now has a larger budget than most of the world’s militaries.
Through the president’s signature domestic policy, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE’s annual budget is expected to increase from $8.7 billion to approximately $27.7 billion, with $75 billion allocated for the agency over the next four years.
The annual funding bump is an unprecedented amount for ICE. It surpasses the annual military budgets of Iran, Turkey, Spain, Mexico, Iran, and at least 23 countries in the top 40 military spenders, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
ICE’s new annual budget places the federal agency among the top 20 most well-funded militaries in the world, sitting between Canada, which spent roughly $29.3 billion in 2024, and Turkey, which spent $25 billion last year.
While the U.S. consistently spends the most on its military compared to other countries, officials have proposed a $1 trillion budget in 2026, boosted by Trump’s bill.
The Trump administration has promised to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, and the turbocharged ICE funding is expected to expand immigration detention facilities and bulk up staffing.
“You’re going to see immigration enforcement on a level you’ve never seen it before,” Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, said in an interview, according to the New York Times.
For immigrants and immigration advocates, the funding push is a worrying step toward more widespread ICE raids that have terrified communities and detainments that circumvent due process.
In the wake of raids, anti-ICE protests have erupted across the country with thousands of people pushing back on the expansive use of immigration law enforcement.
Hundreds of protesters clashed with masked enforcement officers and agents in Los Angeles in June when they began conducting mass arrests. The president responded with further force, federalizing the California National Guard and deploying 4,000 guards to the area, as well as 700 Marines.
Earlier this month, a California marijuana farm worker died during an ICE raid which led to the arrest of more than 360 people for alleged illegal immigration.
Multiple immigration lawyers have raised alarm bells that their clients have been arrested while attending immigration-related court appointments.
Other concerns include that people are being deported, sometimes to third countries they have never been to and with questionable human rights records, without due process.
The administration was forced to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who was living in Maryland under a court-approved status, after sending him to a maximum security prison in El Salvador on allegations that he belonged to a gang. Abrego Garcia and hundreds of other people never received a court hearing before being deported.
“Throwing billions at detention centers and enforcement agents is short-sighted. Instead, we should be investing in a system aimed at welcoming immigrants that contribute billions to our economy,” Adriel Orozco, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, said in a statement, in response to the boost in ICE funding.
“We don’t need more jail beds and indiscriminate raids. We need balanced solutions that strengthen due process and keep families together.”
