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U.S. Border Patrol’s high-profile immigration crackdowns in North Carolina and Louisiana over the last two months have brought fresh scrutiny to the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on immigration raids and arrests under the Trump administration.

The massive spending bill pushed by Trump and passed by Congress this summer increased immigration enforcement by $170 billion, part of a broader push to reach the administration’s goal of deporting 1 million immigrants each year.

The new round of immigration spending includes $75 billion over four years for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, on top of the $10 billion the agency had already been allocated for 2025. The bill also gave $65 billion more to U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), which had already received $20 billion for fiscal year 2025.

While CBP and ICE, which both operate under the Department of Homeland Security, are responsible for immigration matters, Border Patrol has emerged as the leader in Trump’s anti-immigration crusade in recent months, according to immigration reporter Nick Miroff of The Atlantic. Under the bombastic leadership of Gregory Bovino, who grew up in western North Carolina, CBP has led a series of high-profile and militarized operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, and New Orleans that have sparked

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