Immigration

4 Ways the 'Big Beautiful Bill' Supercharged Trump's Immigration Crackdown

A look back on a year of immigration enforcement expansion funded by the OBBBA.

Autumn Billings | 7.1.2026 2:33 PM

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(Illustration: Mikael Damkier/Dreamstime/Midjourney)

It's been nearly a year since President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). While the legislation was advertised as a sweeping tax bill, it also allocated roughly $191 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ramp up immigration enforcement. Included in this total was $75 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $65 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Despite having the funds available through the end of FY 2029, the Trump administration released an estimated $114 billion, nearly 60 percent, of the funding allocated to DHS, ICE, and CBP within eight months of the OBBBA's signing.

Here are some of the ways these immigration agencies have used the OBBBA funding over the last year to implement Trump's immigration crackdown.

1. More Agents, More Arrests

Flush with nearly $30 billion from the OBBBA for hiring and retaining personnel, ICE began its push to hire 10,000 new agents by offering starting salaries as high as $90,000 and offering $50,000 signing bonuses last summer. The hiring surge quickly drew criticism for multiple reasons, from using ads resembling wartime propaganda posters to lowering the minimum age requirement from 21 to 18 to concerns that the shortened ICE training program and issues with the vetting process would threaten civil liberties and lives.

Despite........

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