The White House budget office has released about $7 billion for immigration detention, deportations, and hiring for the budget year that runs through next September. It is holding back another $36.6 billion until next October.
The money belongs to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and comes from the 2025 tax and spending law Republicans called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The White House Office of Management and Budget, which must sign off before an agency can use money Congress approved, gave its approval on Tuesday.
How can ICE use this $7 billion?
With OMB approval, ICE can now solicit, sign contracts, and place orders with this money. About three-quarters of the $7 billion is meant for two purposes: holding people in detention and moving them out of the country.
Detention gets the most, at $3.2 billion. That follows a year of heavy spending to add detention space around the U.S. and its territories. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees it, have done so in three ways. They spent about $1.07 billion on empty warehouses to convert into detention centers, a plan they have since paused. They paid about $3.15 billion to buy seven detention centers from the private prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group, which still run them. And the department has awarded construction contracts worth up to $7.3 billion to build new detention space at five government sites. As of late September, no construction had started.
Another $2 billion pays for moving detainees between facilities and flying people out of the country.
Staffing is the next major cost. ICE can spend $598 million to hire officers and support staff, $120 million to hire government lawyers who argue deportation cases in immigration court, and $56 million on signing and retention bonuses.
The program known as 287(g), named for a section of federal immigration law, lets ICE deputize local police and sheriff’s officers to act as immigration officers. ICE revived its most aggressive version, the task force model, in January 2025 after it had been shut down for about 12 years. More than 1,900 agencies in at least 30 states have since signed up, with more than 29,000 deputized officers, ProPublica reported on Sunday. In Ingram, Texas, a town of about 1,900 people, police turned over to ICE a number of people equal to about 10 percent of the town’s population within a year, according to the report. One patrol officer there earned more than a quarter of his base salary from ICE work in nine months.
The apportionment sets aside a combined $645 million for 287(g). About $453 million of that is meant to repay local agencies for their costs, and the remaining $193 million covers ICE’s own costs to run the program. The document does not say how the $453 million will be divided. In September 2025, ICE announced incentives for participating agencies that include a $100,000 vehicle stipend, $7,500 per officer for equipment, quarterly performance bonuses, and help paying officer salaries and overtime. Another $177 million in the apportionment would repay other agencies that work with ICE on joint task forces.
The last $143 million, about 2 percent of the total, covers offices, computers, vehicles, recruiting, and radios, along with a few small programs. One line, for $200,000, is labeled “Promoting Family Unity.” The document does not say what it pays for.
Each of these amounts is a limit. ICE cannot move money from one category to another without new approval from the budget office.
Do you know how this money is being spent? If you work for ICE, the White House budget office, a police or sheriff’s department in the 287(g) program, or a company doing detention, transportation, or construction work for ICE, we want to hear from you. Email projectsaltbox@proton.me or message mwriston.410 on Signal.
How long does ICE have to use it?
ICE has almost three years — until Sept. 30, 2029 — to spend the full balance of about $43.5 billion.
The $36.6 billion being held for next October is not off limits. The budget office can release more of it whenever it chooses by signing off on a new apportionment. The portion authorized last Tuesday represents a fraction of the total amount left on ICE’s books. But more money can be apportioned throughout the year as ICE asks for it, or as the White House releases it.
Spread evenly over the next two budget years after this one, the $36.6 billion would come to about $18 billion a year, more than two times what has been cleared so far for this year.
Money that ICE has not committed by the 2029 deadline can no longer be used for new contracts. ICE can keep paying bills on contracts it has already signed until Sept. 30, 2034. After that, any money left in the account goes back to the Treasury.
Would the midterms change this?
Not really. The money is already law. To take it back, Congress would have to pass a new law, and President Trump would have to sign it. He can veto it until he leaves office in January 2029. Overriding a veto takes a two-thirds vote in both the House and the Senate, and even a big Democratic win on election night is unlikely to produce majorities that large.
Congress also passed a second law in June, called the Secure America Act. It gave ICE and Customs and Border Protection about $70 billion more through 2029. That means neither agency needs new money from Congress for the rest of Mr. Trump’s term. Speaker Mike Johnson said at the time that Democrats “will have no ability to defund these agencies” in this Congress or the next.
If Democrats win the House or the Senate, they could still hold hearings, demand records, and try to attach rules to other spending bills, such as the body cameras, mask ban, and judicial warrants they sought during this year’s fight over Homeland Security funding. Those bills would still need the president’s signature. In January, Senate Democrats backed an amendment to repeal $75 billion of ICE’s funding and redirect it to Medicaid. It failed 49 to 51. Democratic leaders have not said whether they would try again.
Two things could still change the outcome. One is the 2028 presidential election. A new president would take office in January 2029, about eight months before the money expires, and the new administration’s budget office would decide how much of what is left to release. The other is how members of Congress vote on future homeland security bills, which could carry new limits on ICE.
How soon can we get those ice agents all arrested if the Dems do take power?
These ICE detention camps are a gravy boat for those companies running them. Unlimited funding for the companies and stockholders while providing less than ethical care, food, and medical services for those within.