Washington, DC – Yesterday evening, the Republican-controlled House voted to provide an additional $70 billion on top of $170.7 billion in funding for federal immigration enforcement agencies. The vote comes as The Marshall Project and MS Now reported that “ICE has dramatically increased detentions of children aged 3 and under, holding 25 of them in custody on an average day between January 2025 and March of this year.” NPR also notes that “Now ICE and Border Patrol will be funded without the changes Democrats were demanding, including requiring judicial warrants to enter homes and prohibiting officers from wearing masks.” This new influx of funds will escalate the chaos and cruelty that has been caused by the Trump administration’s mass militarized deportation efforts without the necessary oversight and accountability needed.
As America’s Voice Executive Director Vanessa Cárdenas said yesterday, “An additional $70 billion in funding for masked agents and brutality in our neighborhoods with little to no accountability is a travesty for American families who are trying to make ends meet. This vote also lays bare the priorities of this Administration and their allies in Congress: They answer to Trump, not to the people who sent them there to advocate on their behalf.”
Read below reactions from organizations on the passage of the reconciliation package to fund federal immigration agencies with $70 billion by Senate and House Republicans:
- The League of Women Voters notes, “The League of Women Voters strongly condemns Congress’s passage of the budget reconciliation package, which pours billions of additional taxpayer dollars into US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) without installing critical guardrails for accountability, transparency, or civil liberties protections. This violates constitutional protections, including the right to due process and First Amendment freedoms.”
- AFL-CIO’s Government Affairs Director Jody Calemine notes, “Despite the chaos and violence ICE has caused in communities and workplaces around the country, this bill creates no guardrails whatsoever to constrain the lawless behavior of federal agents. Worse still, by forward funding the agency for three years, it removes any meaningful leverage Congress has to demand accountability from ICE for the duration of this administration. This bill would constitute an unacceptable failure by the legislative branch to defend the Constitution and check abuse of power by the executive branch, and working families will face ever deeper harm as a result.”
- American Immigration Lawyers Association’s (AILA) President Jeff Joseph notes, “This $70 billion blank check, mostly to fund ICE and Border Patrol, utterly fails to put any guardrails on these agencies’ unlawful, unconstitutional practices that endanger American communities. They are being handed billions that they do not need even while they continue to assault and detain U.S. citizens, violate court orders, and arrest people who pose no threat to public safety, including DACA recipients and people with legal status. Just days ago, another person died in ICE custody, and since 2025, federal agents have killed at least 28 people.”
- American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Senior Policy Counsel Kate Voigt notes, “It is unconscionable that the House would vote to write yet another blank check for ICE and Border Patrol’s campaign of chaos without any reforms. Over the past several months we’ve seen these abusive agencies kill our neighbors, harass and racially profile people, and tear thousands of families apart. Once again, the House has shown that it is more committed to standing in President Trump’s good graces than fighting for the needs of the constituents they were elected to represent.”
