On June 9, the House passed the Senate-approved version of S. 2, the “Secure America Act”, by a party-line vote of 214-212, and President Trump signed it today. The law funds ICE and CBP past the end of the Trump II administration and ends a months-long attempt by congressional Democrats to starve the two main immigration-enforcement agencies of cash. Congress should be ashamed — and worried about what that past impasse means for the future.
The Shutdown Saga
Congress passed funding bills for every federal government department and agency through the end of FY 2026, with the sole exception of DHS, by February 14.
Congressional Democrats used U.S. citizen Alex Pretti’s death during an immigration-enforcement action in Minneapolis on January 24 as a pretext to demand restrictions on ICE and CBP operations, including requiring agents to obtain judicial warrants before entering private property; barring immigration arrests at hospitals, daycare centers, schools, and churches; prohibiting ICE officers from wearing masks; and requiring them to wear bodycams.
Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who some blamed for the chaos in Minnesota and other major cities during ICE and CBP protests, left the department on March 5, weeks after Trump “Border Czar” Tom Homan replaced the secretary as the face of immigration enforcement.
Trump quickly announced Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R) as Noem’s replacement, and he was confirmed as secretary on March 24.
A week before Mullin took the helm, Homan wrote to Senate leadership agreeing to some of those demands, including the bodycams, limits on “civil immigration enforcement at certain sensitive locations”, and use of “visible officer identification for DHS law enforcement carrying out immigration enforcement activities”.
Other demands, Homan contended, “would make it impossible to fully protect American citizens from dangerous criminal aliens and expose law enforcement and their families to increasing threats of violence”, and would “prioritize illegal aliens above American families”.
The funding stall impacted all of DHS — not just ICE and CBP — and after not receiving pay for weeks, nearly 500 TSA officers had quit and 3,100-plus weren’t showing up for work by late March, creating long lines at airports.
On March 27, Trump issued a presidential memorandum, “Paying Our Great Transportation Security Administration Officers and Employees”, which directed the Office of Management and Budget and DHS secretary to “use funds that have a reasonable and logical nexus to TSA operations to provide TSA employees with the compensation and benefits that would have accrued to them if not for the Democrat-led DHS shutdown”.
CNBC had reported the money was being drawn from an earlier funding bill, Pub. L. 119-21, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, which had allocated $10 billion “for reimbursement of costs incurred in undertaking activities in support of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission to safeguard the borders of the United States”, the latter a term that arguably covered international airports.
Using legislative maneuvers, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) snuck a DHS funding bill that didn’t include ICE and CBP through the upper chamber early on March 27, directly before the body adjourned for its two-week Easter break.
That bill went to the House, where Speaker Johnson termed it it as a “joke” and opted instead to bring a 60-day DHS temporary funding measure that would have continued all of the department’s activities to the floor of the House, where it passed by a vote of 213 to 203 but then went nowhere in the Senate.
Finally, on April 30, Trump signed legislation funding most of DHS — except for ICE and CBP — through the end of the fiscal year, spurred by a promise from Republican leadership to pass a “reconciliation bill” to pay for those two agencies — without Democratic support, if necessary.
The Secure America Act
Trump wanted ICE and CBP funding on his desk by June 1, but that didn’t happen.
Instead, wrangling on funding for improvements to the White House and an “anti-weaponization” fund the administration had sought slowed final negotiations on money for ICE and CBP, and by the time the Secure America Act passed the Senate on a 52-47 vote (with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) voting with her Democrat colleagues in opposition) on June 5, all that remained was the immigration cash.
Section 101 of the bill gives $9.55 billion to CBP to “hire, pay, train, and equip Border Patrol agents and Border Patrol support personnel to conduct functions other than immigration enforcement and customs functions”, while section 201 has an additional $13.02 billion for “U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, and the necessary support staff ... in order to carry out immigration enforcement activities”.
In other words, some of the money in that second pot is meant to pay CBP Office of Field Operations (OFO) officers at the ports.
Section 102 offers $7.45 billion to ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) — a directorate with duties that extend beyond immigration — to “hire, pay, train, and equip” its agents and support personnel.
And in section 103, Congress apportioned $3.45 billion for “border security, technology, and training” at CBP.
The lion’s share of the funding, however — $31.075 billion in section 202 — goes to ICE to hire, pay, train, and equip personnel at “all its directorates, including officers, agents, investigators, attorneys and support staff, to carry out immigration enforcement activities”.
As an aside, and having been an immigration prosecutor, I’m glad to see the lawyers finally getting at least some of their due.
Likely the most interesting provision in the bill is subsection 202(9), which at paragraph (A) provides:
Not less than [$350 million for ICE] for necessary expenses, in accordance with existing law, of detainer management, detainer issuance, custodial transfer, release monitoring, transportation, and arrests of covered unlawful aliens encountered in jurisdictions that are not qualified cooperating jurisdictions, except that no Indian tribal government shall be treated as a jurisdiction that is not a qualified cooperating jurisdiction for purposes of this subparagraph. [Emphasis added.]
Who are “covered aliens” and which jurisdictions aren’t “qualified cooperating” ones?
The latter term describes aliens removable on criminal grounds subject to mandatory detention under section 236(c)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) as amended by the Laken Riley Act, and given a qualified cooperating jurisdiction is one either with a 287(g) agreement or that certifies its employees are allowed to communicate with immigration enforcement officers, non-qualified ones don’t do either.
In other words, that money is intended to facilitate ICE operations in “sanctuary” cities, states, and localities with laws, ordinances, and/or policies intended to obstruct immigration enforcement.
ICE has a tougher row to hoe in finding and taking custody of criminal aliens in those sanctuaries, so it makes sense Congress gave them a $350 million hoe to do it.
Three-Plus Years of Funding
The funding in S. 2 will remain available until September 30, 2029 — that is the end of FY 2029, about eight months into the next administration.
Consequently, Congress won’t need to wrestle with appropriations for ICE and CBP for a while, though given both are components of “the Department of Homeland Security”, created in the wake of the September 11th attacks to consolidate all federal agencies responsible for “securing the homeland” under one roof, the legislative branch should be ashamed for having allowed funding to lapse for so long.
Those Who Break Norms Usually Regret It
The bigger issue is the horrendous precedent this funding impasse has set. As I explained in early April:
Democrats will likely (and reasonably) conclude that, so long as Republicans run the House and Senate, they won’t ever have to fund immigration enforcement and can begin starving ICE and CBP for funding once they take over one or both bodies.
Fair enough, but Republicans will likely have long memories and employ similar tactics when the money is intended for something their base doesn’t like, such as foreign aid, Obamacare, or environmental subsidies.
The first point is now “overcome by events” (“OBE”), as we say in Washington, thanks to the three-plus years of ICE and CBP funding in S. 2.
The second, however, remains salient — and likely prescient.
I recently attended a panel that included a migrant activist cum reporter, who asserted he was shocked to learn congressional appropriators would continue funding enforcement programs they disagree with, and who claimed (full or partial) credit for encouraging Democrats to hold out on funding the two agencies that enforced the immigration laws.
The reason appropriators traditionally kept money flowing was the norm of leaving it to “authorizing” committees (the ones that don’t write checks but usually have a better grasp of the issues) to address policy concerns.
Notice my use of the past tense there, because that congressional norm (like other critical ones having to do with how the Senate confirms federal judges) is either now dead or on life support.
The word “deadbeat” describes those who demand what they won’t pay for, and little except partisan maneuvers prevented that epithet from being applied to Congress — the source of the immigration laws but a branch that until this week stalled on paying for their enforcement. Shame on them, but politicos of every stripe should worry about what happens next, as those who break norms often quickly regret it.