At a moment when families across the country are struggling to afford housing, food, and health care, Congress appears poised to move in the wrong direction – again.

Across the country, the American people are demanding that Congress hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) accountable for years of well-documented abuses: deaths in custody, family separation, racial profiling, and reckless enforcement practices that sow fear and chaos in communities. Lawmakers have a clear choice: put guardrails on these agencies so harm cannot continue or reward the violence with unchecked funding.

Unfortunately, Congress seems to be intent on choosing the latter. Instead of continuing negotiations toward reforms and accountability, Congressional leaders are now pushing to use the partisan budget reconciliation process to shovel $70 billion in additional dollars to ICE and CBP. Because this process bypasses the usual requirement for bipartisan support for legislation in the Senate, this funding can move forward with support exclusively from the party in power.

It’s important to note that last week, Congress finally funded the non-immigration enforcement agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. Staff for the Coast Guard, FEMA, TSA, and other agencies are now getting paid. Meanwhile, ICE and CBP agents have been getting paid this whole time, through the $170 billion in slush funds Congress passed last summer.

Congress is Looking to Give $70 Billion More for Immigration Enforcement, With Little Oversight

Usually if Congress wants to pass a new law, 60 out of 100 Senators must agree. With 53 Republican Senators and 47 Democratic Senators, this means new laws are usually bipartisan. But there is a loophole. The reconciliation process allows Congress to spend more money with only 50 votes in the Senate. It requires the passage of a budget resolution, a high-level framework for how funds could be allocated. Unfortunately, Congress has now taken this step and passed a new budget resolution, opening the gate to more unaccountable money for violent immigration enforcement agencies.

Congress is now considering a reconciliation bill that gives the federal government $72 billion for immigration enforcement. This amounts to more than three years’ worth of typical funding at once. Why? Because their goal is to fund ICE and CBP for the rest of President Trump’s term, essentially making them unaccountable to Congress for that time.

Reconciliation Means Fewer Guardrails and Less Oversight

Congress usually funds federal agencies through the annual appropriations process. This process requires bipartisan compromises, because 60 Senators must agree to these bills for them to become law.

Through this regular appropriations process, Congress has historically imposed important guardrails on ICE and CBP, which require, among other things, public data reporting about immigration arrests and detention; that Congress must be allowed to inspect detention facilities; and certain enforcement and detention practices must adhere to basic civil rights. Both political parties have previously agreed to these guardrails, which require DHS to maintain and report critical information the public needs to assess whether the agency is acting lawfully.

The basic guardrails placed on DHS in appropriations bills are not included in the proposed bill that is moving through Congress. If successful, Congress will be setting a dangerous new precedent: allowing the party in power to unilaterally set federal agencies’ annual budgets, without any motivation to hold agencies like ICE and CBP accountable.

Funding Enforcement While Ignoring Affordability

The bill, as released by the Senate Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees would:

• Provide $38 billion more in funding for ICE to hire agents, transport immigrants for deportation, and bribe localities to cooperate.
• Provide $26 billion more for CBP to hire agents, buy inspection equipment, screen unaccompanied children, and expand border surveillance.
• Create a new $5 billion immigration enforcement slush fund for the DHS Secretary.
• Provide $1.5 billion to the Department of Justice for various agencies.
• Provide $1 billion to the Secret Service to finance Donald Trump’s ballroom.

This new money is in addition to the funding that ICE and CBP received last year, which came from gutting affordability programs like Medicaid and SNAP.

With Congress having cut Medicaid and SNAP while failing to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits, families are continuing to struggle with rising costs and shrinking safety nets. Voters are demanding action on affordability, not another tidal wave of money for deeply unpopular immigration enforcement agencies. And yet, President Trump himself recently summed up this approach: “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare.”

Polling consistently shows that ICE and CBP rank among the least trusted and least liked federal agencies. Giving them billions more, while declining to address health care, food assistance, or housing affordability, sends a clear message about misplaced priorities.

NILC urges Members of Congress to vote no.