How The Trump Administration Is Priming Its Case to Congress for More Money – And Why We Can’t Fall For It

According to recent reports, Congress is considering legislation that would signicantly expand federal agencies’ capacity to implement President Trump’s mass deportation agenda. The Senate is currently considering $175 billion for border enforcement and $175 billion for interior enforcement through the partisan reconciliation processes to operationalize his Day 1 Executive Orders. This funding is on top of the annual appropriations funding which, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, awarded nearly $30 billion to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). If Congress accedes to this demand, the consequences will extend far beyond budget numbers: enhanced enforcement capacity will have profound effects on American families, businesses, and communities.

Congress has a vital role in the upcoming budget debate. The actions of our lawmakers in the weeks and months ahead will mean the difference between mitigating or exacerbating harms faced by millions of Americans living in mixed-status households, and these actions will shape the nation’s broader economic and social landscape for years to come. Meanwhile, Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement policy—driven by political pressure to produce results—is reviving controversial practices, such as arrests of innocent bystanders and families, and for the rst time in recent memory is being dictated by arbitrary enforcement quotas. The importance of the interplay between the two – the policy and purse – cannot be overstated.