After weeks of negotiations, Donald Trump was able to convince Republicans in the House and the Senate to pass his “Big Beautiful Bill.” Trump says that his bill will help spur economic growth in the country. Critics say it is simply another wealth transfer to the super-rich and does little to help the working class.
Trump will also get a lot more money for his immigration plans. There is a reported $170 billion going to ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The president’s immigration raids have grown less and less popular, but they will now be supercharged.
Some of the Money Goes Toward New Facilities
As arrest numbers have gone up, so has the need for facilities in which the hold the people who are being arrested. ICE has faced significant criticism for holding the people they have detained in poor conditions, sometimes having multiple people sharing small cells.
The agency will be able to build a significant number of new facilities, as $45 billion in Trump’s new tax bill will go toward doing so. According to one report, this amount of money could allow ICE to double the number of people they are currently holding in custody.
Democrats Have Complained About the Buildings Migrants Are Being Held In
With such a large increase in arrests since Trump has taken office, ICE can often have difficulty finding buildings to hold its detainees. No facility has been more criticized than what has been called Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades.
After she was allowed to visit the facilities, Florida Democrat Debbie Wasserman-Schultz called the site vile and inhumane. She said that people were being denied basic hygiene and essentially living in a tent city. There were also concerns about lawyers and family members being able to get in touch with detainees.
Immigration Was the Hallmark of Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign
While campaigning for the White House in 2024, Donald Trump made immigration and, more pointedly, deportations a major part of his platform. He promised voters that he would deport anyone who was not in the country legally.
The message worked in conservative circles, and Trump was again elected to the White House. He went to work almost immediately on deporting people from the country. At this moment, in early July, an estimated 150,000 people have been arrested, and tens of thousands have been deported.
ICE Has Been a Frequent Target of Criticism
The ICE raids across the United States began around a week after Donald Trump was inaugurated. The President argued that he would focus his raids on only the most dangerous migrants who have crossed the United States border.
At first, the administration was able to focus its efforts on focusing their arrests and deportations on people who had criminal records or were facing potential legal jeopardy. While there were concerns about innocent people being accused of being gang members, the public was mostly behind efforts to deport people with records.
The Number of Deportations Has Continued to Grow
While running his campaign, Trump promised his supporters that he would deport massive numbers of people. The Republican has tried to look as strong as possible, pushing through his tariff plan despite concerns from both economists and Wall Street.
Trump has also been eager to keep his deportations and arrests of migrants up, even if that means more and more non-criminals are being swept up in the raids. According to reports, in late May, policy chief Stephen Miller and ICE head Kristi Noem demanded that arrests go up to 3,000 per day.
Billions More Dollars Are Going Toward Arresting More People
During the month of June, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more people than it had in five years. Even though the arrest numbers are high, they are still not coming close to those that Donald Trump talked about while on the campaign trail.
Those efforts to arrest more people are going to get a major infusion of cash, as $30 billion will be going towards the entire process of deportation. ICE is hoping to streamline the process so that the migrants can be arrested, processed, and deported in a quicker fashion.
The Money Will Also Provide For More Walls and Barriers
One of Donald Trump’s major talking points during his 2015 and 2016 campaign concerned building a massive border wall along the border between the United States and Mexico. Despite this promise, Trump built very little actual wall during his first term.
Things could look different in Trump’s second term. While critics argue that smugglers could easily bypass a wall in several ways, the bill will give Customs and Border Patrol billions in funding. That money will go toward hiring more staff, along with building new barriers and walls along the border.
Polling Has Shown That Resistance Against the ICE Raids is Growing
Since they first hit American streets, ICE agents have been met with anger and protests. At one point, Trump sent the National Guard and Marines into San Francisco in response to demonstrations. But public opinion on Trump’s immigration practices is getting worse for the president.
Polling shows that as people have seen the large number of non-criminals being arrested, sentiment towards the immigration raids has changed. Numbers also show that a majority of people aren’t against further immigration into the country going forward.
Conclusion
While sentiment has been growing against Donald Trump’s handling of immigration, deportations will likely only go up with the massive infusion of money going to ICE. The administration will have little choice but to keep aggressively arresting and deporting migrants.
But the combination of tariff uncertainty and the ICE raids is hurting Trump when it comes to approval ratings, and he is back to the rough situation he faced for much of his first term. The White House will have to balance its immigration goals against the possibility of taking heavy political losses during the 2025 midterms.