A Look at the FY2026 DHS Funding Proposals
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) have used the annual Department of Homeland Security (DHS) appropriations process over the years to dramatically increase their budgets for militarized enforcement, widespread surveillance, and deportations without due process. Now, Congress has the opportunity to put a stop to the violence inflicted by ICE and CBP’s Border Patrol by cutting the agencies’ fiscal year (FY) funding, demanding meaningful policy changes to end the impunity for the discriminatory abuses, and redirecting funds from their already bloated budgets to better fund programs that support the safety and wellness of U.S. communities.
Many in Congress are more than willing to pass a DHS funding bill as long as it cuts out ICE and Border Patrol’s annual funding.
A month into the DHS shutdown, most agencies within the department continue to operate without FY 2026 appropriations funding. FWD.us found there are enough unspent funds from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” or OBBBA, an estimated $150 billion, to fund all of DHS until the end of 2027, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other functions outside of ICE and Border Patrol. In fact, the administration could be using ICE and Border Patrol’s OBBBA slush fund accounts right now to meet the needs of other DHS agencies during the partial shutdown, as it did to pay Coast Guard personnel during the full government shutdown last fall. Nonetheless, the administration continues to prioritize its deadly immigration crackdown while other DHS components struggle to make ends meet. Airline CEOs have asked Congress to fund TSA while negotiations over the full FY2026 funding continue, to no avail. Meanwhile, private prison CEOs and other DHS contractors continue to profit off the ICE and Border Patrol’s bloated OBBBA budgets for detention and enforcement. In fact, ICE is in the process of contracting out for over $38 billion for warehouses to open new mass immigrant detention camps.
There are now proposals in the House and Senate to fund all agencies in DHS for FY2026 except for ICE, CBP, and the Office of the Secretary. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is seeking to force a vote on the House version. These proposals show that many in Congress are more than willing to pass a DHS funding bill as long as it cuts out ICE and Border Patrol’s annual funding. Cutting annual funds for ICE and Border Patrol is a vital first step as Congress also pursues measures to chip away at the OBBBA windfall being used for violent operations and enact meaningful policy changes.
In prioritizing its unprecedented assault on immigrant communities, the Trump administration has severely harmed the missions of other DHS agencies. Last year, DHS raided the accounts of more than $430 million from FEMA, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and other programs within DHS to cover costs relating to overspending and self-inflicted shortfalls, including $212 million to ICE. When the tragic Texas floods began last year, FEMA took 72 hours to respond, and ran into red tape regarding its spending, raising concerns that de-prioritizing emergency services hindered rescue efforts. Former DHS Secretary Noem also strained the Coast Guard’s limited resources by implementing a tenfold increase in the use of the agency’s aircraft for immigrant deportations. The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was in dire shape before the current shutdown, after the Trump administration reassigned hundreds of its staff to other DHS agencies as part of the immigration crackdown.
The administration could be using ICE and Border Patrol’s OBBBA slush fund accounts right now to meet the needs of other DHS agencies during the partial shutdown. Nonetheless, the administration continues to prioritize its deadly immigration crackdown while other DHS components struggle to make ends meet.
Congress must reassert its authority and use the FY2026 appropriations process to stop DHS’s reckless spending and hold agencies responsible for how they use OBBBA funds. While Senate leadership continues to negotiate reforms to rein in ICE and Border Patrol, the latest letter from the White House indicates that the administration is rejecting most of the baseline demands. Instead, the Trump administration is offering hollow commitments to follow existing legal obligations. The letter offers minor policy shifts but with gaping exceptions. For example, the administration offers for immigration authorities to not “knowingly” detain a U.S. citizen, unless they violate a state or federal law that makes them subject to arrest. The White House also offers to restrict arrest operations at sensitive locations such as schools and hospitals with such broad exceptions that ICE and Border Patrol would easily justify entering those spaces in most cases. Meanwhile, Republicans in both chambers continue to push for the same bill that passed the House in January but has failed for two months to win enough support to pass the Senate. That bill would provide $10 billion more for ICE and $17.7 billion for CBP, which would layer on top of the over $100 billion provided last summer in OBBBA.
Congress must keep pushing for measures to prevent any more funding for ICE and Border Patrol’s lawless roving patrol operations and the deadly detention expansion, including the purchase of literal warehouses to hold tens of thousands of people. At a minimum, any deal should carry over existing transparency and accountability measures adopted over the years in appropriations bills, ensure these provisions apply to OBBBA funds, and strip the authority of DHS to shift any more resources from other departments to serve ICE and Border Patrol’s dangerous anti-immigrant agenda.
Jesse Franzblau is an associate director of policy at the National Immigrant Justice Center.