This is what $200 billion for immigration enforcement looks like under Trump—stop the Senate from giving him another $28 billion. 

In July, congressional Republicans passed Trump’s budget legislation (aka One Big Beautiful Bill Act or OBBBA) through the reconciliation process that massively redistributes income from some of the poorest households to the richest. Aside from cutting taxes by trillions for the wealthy, kicking 15 million people off health care, and cutting food aid for the poor, the law provided a staggering amount of additional money to fund Trump’s draconian mass deportation agenda: $170 billion—five and a half times more than the usual annual funding for immigration enforcement. That $170 billion was appropriated in addition to the $30 billion that Congress had already appropriated for fiscal year (FY) 2025 for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which includes the U.S. Border Patrol. That meant that by July of the first year of Trump’s second presidential term, his administration had $200 billion to carry out its goal of deporting 4 million people in four years.

To underscore the lopsided priorities of the Trump administration, the $200 billion is 91 times more than the $2.2 billion that was appropriated by Congress to fund all of the federal government’s worker protection agencies in FY 2025, including the Wage and Hour Division, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the National Labor Relations Board.

With $200 billion in funding, Trump’s deportation troops at ICE and CBP have, within just one year:

Will the agents engaging in this behavior ever face accountability? Not if Vice President JD Vance has his way, having proclaimed soon after the shooting of Renee Good that ICE and Border Patrol agents have “absolute immunity” for their actions. When questioned later, Vance walked his comments back slightly. But his initial statement was a window into what this administration fundamentally stands for.

These crimes and abuses are clearly not about enforcing immigration laws or going after criminals—a fact made obvious given that a majority of those arrested have no criminal records. And they are certainly not intended to help workers, as President Trump proclaimed repeatedly on the campaign trail. Nothing ICE or the Border Patrol has done will help workers—quite the opposite. Instead, they are making it more difficult for workers to speak out in the face of employer lawbreaking or to organize and join unions, which is one of the most direct paths to higher wages and better benefits. In addition, there is no credible evidence that raids and audits of employers—much less detaining and tear-gassing U.S. citizens and journalists for recording ICE and Border Patrol activity on their cell phones—will raise wages or improve working conditions.

Instead, ICE and CBP’s actions have been intended to intimidate people of all races, nationalities, and immigration statuses. These two agencies have acted as Trump’s personal army that is tasked with fulfilling the promise of “retribution” against the populations of cities and states where Trump did not win a majority of votes in the last election—and to make sure that he does not lose again in future elections. This is laid bare by Attorney General Bondi’s letter to Governor Walz of Minnesota demanding that he turn over the state’s voter rolls in exchange for the removal of ICE and Border Patrol agents from the state.

What can you do to try and stop this? You can contact your senators and tell them to use their power of the purse. Use the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to tell them to vote no on any new immigration enforcement funding until the violence, deaths, and harassment on American streets and in immigration detention centers stops. Demand that your senators refuse to hand over any more money to ICE and CBP’s Border Patrol and that they go further and introduce legislation that puts significant restrictions on ICE and the Border Patrol, and that repeals and redirects a portion of the $170 billion toward funding other priorities like Medicaid, SNAP, and Affordable Care Act subsidies.

While ICE and Border Patrol likely already have enough funding to last them through the rest of the Trump presidency, Congress must at a minimum ensure they do not receive a single additional cent to continue carrying out their heinous crimes. Any legislator who votes to give ICE and CBP more funding will be guilty of more than just capitulation—they will be complicit in the atrocities occurring on American streets.