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By Mandy Taheri
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The military budget of the United States is the world’s largest, nearly tripling that of China—the next biggest spender—while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) multibillion-dollar annual bankroll is higher than the entire defense coffers of some countries.
Why It Matters
Public criticism is mounting over federal immigration tactics in Minneapolis, which escalated in recent days following the deadly shooting of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti. His killing comes just days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, also 37, and another shooting in the city left Venezuelan migrant Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis injured during an arrest attempt.
Read More on Politics
Last week, seven House Democrats voted with Republicans in favor of a $64.4 billion bill to advance a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending measure that includes about $10 billion for ICE. The votes came during a markup of the DHS appropriations bill, with U.S. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky casting the lone GOP vote against the funding, which passed 220-207 and would fund ICE and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through September 30.
Some of those who supported it cited concerns of government shutdown along with other federally funded programs. Calls for the Senate to reject the measure have intensified since Pretti’s death over the weekend, as many called out DHS operations.
If the spending bill is not approved by the Senate, a partial government shutdown will go into effect on Saturday.
What To Know
In the summer, the Trump administration signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which significantly increased funding for ICE, providing around $75 billion for enforcement and detention operations over four years.
According to USA Spending.gov, ICE “carried over a balance of $73B from last year, were given $3B in new appropriations, and have authority to use $545M of other budgetary resources” in fiscal year 2026. Over 97 percent of the funding is “unobligated,” meaning the agency can use it where it deems fit.
The spending bill would allow ICE to have around $29 billion annually, an exponential increase from recent years.
This budget exceeds several countries’ entire defense budgets, including those of Denmark, Romania, Belgium, Greece and Morocco, all of which are below $10 billion annually, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). ICE's budget is closer to the size of Turkey and Spain's defense budgets, which SIPRI puts around $25 billion, as well as the Netherlands' $23 billion, and Algeria and Brazil's, both around $21 billion. According to the institute, the ICE budget almost mirrors Canada's, at around $29.3 billion.
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ICE's budget has been used to expand DHS operations, increase detention capacity and ramp up hiring, DHS says, as ICE has more than doubled its agents to around 22,000. NPR noted that a decade ago, ICE’s annual budget was less than $6 billion.
The Senate is weighing the DHS spending measure as lawmakers scramble to avert the partial government shutdown.
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What People Are Saying
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan policy institute, to NPR: "With this new bill and other appropriations, it's larger than the annual budget of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.”
U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Washington Democrat, in a news release: “Because Republicans provided over $190 billion for the Department of Homeland Security (nearly 3X DHS’s annual budget) in OBBBA—largely for ICE ($75 billion; over 7X ICE’s annual budget) and CBP [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] ($65 billion; over 3.5X CBP’s annual budget)—Congress’ failure to pass a Homeland Security appropriations bill would not shut down ICE or CBP. A lapse in annual appropriations would instead allow ICE and CBP to continue their operations using OBBBA funds—but without any of the constraints imposed by an enacted funding bill—while FEMA, TSA [Transportation Security Administration], CISA [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency], Coast Guard, and other DHS components are shuttered, or working without pay.”
U.S. Senator Cory Booker, New Jersey Democrat, on X: "ICE operations in Minnesota must end immediately. Congress must not continue funding an out of control and unaccountable DHS and ICE that have repeatedly escalated violence and so severely broken laws and Constitutional protections. Every minute these ICE operations continue on our streets is another minute they endanger the safety of Americans and further injure our communities."
U.S. Senator Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, also on X: “These are not rogue agents. This is an all out assault on American life. ICE is a criminal organization that is entering homes without judicial warrants, detaining witnesses, and killing people. All at the direction of Trump. We must stop funding DHS. There is no other path forward.”
In a separate post, he wrote, “We cannot keep living like this and people can’t keep dying like this. Stop funding DHS. Impeach Kristi Noem. Hold these agents accountable.”
U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, on X Saturday: “Congress has not yet renewed ICE’s budget. House voted but Senate hasn’t yet. They need 10 Dem votes in the Senate. We can still stop it.”
U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada Democrat, in a statement Saturday: "I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill. We have bipartisan agreement on 96% of the budget. We've already passed six funding bills. Let's pass the remaining five bipartisan bills and fund essential agencies while we continue to fight for a Department of Homeland Security that respects Americans' constitutional rights and preserves federal law enforcement's essential role to keep us safe."
What Happens Next
If the spending bill is not approved by the Senate, a partial government shutdown will go into effect on Saturday.
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