CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Fund the Safety Net, Not ICE

Homeless camp under a bridge, Portland, Oregon. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

President Trump has made historically steep cuts to SNAP, Medicaid, and other programs, claiming we can’t afford them. Yet at the same time he and his Republican allies have plowed record sums into ICE, even as popular support for the agency has plunged.

In June, Trump signed a $70 billion bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through the remainder of his term. This is the second Republican-led, multi-billion-dollar infusion into these agencies since Trump retook office.

Last year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) granted $75 billion to ICE and $65 billion to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That alone was seven times more than ICE’s annual budget and four times more than CBP’s.

This funding is being used to supercharge Trump’s mass deportation regime. It has allowed ICE to hire 12,000 new, poorly trained officers and agents, leading directly to the horrific scenes we saw in Minnesota and elsewhere.

Where else is this money going? To massive prisons.

Since 2025, ICE has spent over $700 million to purchase nine warehouses they intend to........

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