Critics Sound Alarm on Increased Funding For Trump's Deportation Operation: 'A Police State for Immigrant Communities and Beyond'

The sprawling tax bill signed into law by President Trump on July 4, known by many as the "Big Beautiful Bill", includes a sweeping new immigration funding package which allocates more than $170 billion to immigration and border enforcement through 2029, an amount critics and policy experts say entrenches a punitive system and weakens oversight.

The legislation provides nearly $30 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and $45 billion to expand detention capacity—enough to hold over 100,000 people, according to a new report by The Hill. It also directs $47 billion toward continued construction of the southern border wall.

"This infusion of more than $170 billion into our enforcement apparatus is both historic and alarming," said Jorge Loweree of the American Immigration Council to the news site. "When we infuse a ton of resources into a law enforcement agency, that becomes the new norm."

The American Immigration Council warned in an in-depth analysis of its own on Monday that the bill gives agencies broad discretion regarding how to use the funds, without specific directives or robust congressional oversight. ICE could grow to 125,000 detention beds, nearing the size of the federal prison population. In fact, funding for ICE detention now exceeds the Bureau of Prisons' entire budget.

The law also introduces new mandatory fees for legal immigration benefits. Asylum seekers, for example, must pay $100 annually while their cases are pending which "effectively blocks access for those unable to afford them," the Council's report reads.

Advocates are especially concerned about the expansion of "soft-sided" detention centers, such as the rapidly constructed "Alligator Alcatraz" in the Florida Everglades. "You have this clearly horrific, awful place to be detained that pops up seemingly overnight," said Heidi Altman of the National Immigration Law Center to The Hill. "It isn't even being done in contract with ICE."

Thirteen people have died in ICE custody this year, and oversight has been weakened by the dismantling of internal DHS watchdog offices. "A lot of people are going to die unnecessarily," Loweree warned.

Altman added:

"What we can't even quite comprehend yet is the way this money is going to further convert the United States into a police state for immigrant communities and beyond. They're talking about creating a militarized environment for anyone in this country they believe to be worthy of deportation"