Federal Budget and Law Enforcement

NPR details how Immigration and Customs Enforcement has become the highest‑funded U.S. law‑enforcement agency after President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, jumping from a long‑standing ~$10 billion annual budget to authority over roughly $85 billion. The law gives ICE a $75 billion multi‑year supplement on top of its base budget, meaning if spent steadily the agency would wield nearly $29 billion a year—about triple its recent funding and close to the entire Justice Department’s requested 2026 budget. DHS has set goals of deporting 1 million people annually and expanding detention capacity so ICE can hold up to 100,000 people per day, backed by $45 billion earmarked for new beds, compared with about 65,700 already detained as of Nov. 30. The piece traces the political and migration context—from Obama‑era underfunding through Trump’s first term, Title 42 under Biden, and Trump’s 2025 return—showing how rising encounters and nativist politics paved the way for this escalation. It also notes growing criticism over ICE tactics, including masked agents sweeping U.S. neighborhoods and the killing of Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis, as civil‑rights advocates warn that an agency now larger than all other federal law‑enforcement budgets combined is operating with limited transparency or oversight.