Congress has handed Donald Trump a £54 billion ($70 billion) blank cheque to run his deportation machine through the end of his presidency, with no reforms attached.
The House passed the Secure America Act on Tuesday in a razor-thin 214-212 vote, sending the legislation to President Trump for his expected signature. The bill directs roughly £54 billion ($70 billion) to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, funding both agencies not just for a single fiscal year but through the duration of Trump's term. It is the second multi-billion dollar infusion of immigration enforcement money that Republicans have pushed through in less than a year, following the £131 billion ($170 billion) allocated through Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act last summer.
Not a single Democrat in either chamber voted for the bill. The only Republican to break ranks was Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who said she opposed bypassing the annual appropriations process entirely.
A 115-Day Standoff Settled on Republican Terms
The vote ended a 115-day stalemate that had begun in January after federal agents fatally shot two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, during immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Senate Democrats responded by allowing the Department of Homeland Security to lapse into a partial shutdown, the longest in the agency's history, refusing to restore funding for ICE and Border Patrol without substantial reforms to how agents operate.
The demands Democrats put forward included a judicial warrant requirement before agents could enter private property, a ban on agents wearing masks during operations, a body camera mandate, and a prohibition on the detention of US citizens. Republicans rejected every one of those conditions. Instead, they used the budget reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority in the Senate and bypasses the threat of a Democratic filibuster, to push the funding through on partisan lines.
Some 75 days after the shutdown began, Congress passed a separate bill that ended the DHS closure by restoring funding for the Coast Guard, FEMA, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Secret Service, while deliberately leaving ICE and Border Patrol unfunded. Negotiations over those two agencies then collapsed, and reconciliation became the Republican vehicle of choice.
What £54 Billion Buys: Detention Beds, Agents, and a 1 Million Deportation Target
The White House says the bill provides £29 billion ($38 billion) for ICE, £20 billion ($26 billion) for Border Patrol, and £3.8 billion ($5 billion) for unforeseen operational costs. It frontloads routine annual funding to guarantee a virtually uninterrupted cash flow to both agencies as the administration pursues a stated target of one million deportations per year.
The structural ambitions behind that figure are already visible. An internal ICE memo dated 13 February 2026, reported by Fox News, detailed plans to expand detention capacity to 92,600 beds through eight mega-centres each capable of holding up to 10,000 detainees, alongside 16 regional processing sites.
The memo described the network as ICE's 'long-term detention solution.' Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told CBS News in an exclusive interview that reaching one million annual deportations could 'definitely' be 'possible' and that the agency intends to hire 10,000 additional agents and officers using the new funds.
For context, ICE's annual budget stood at approximately £6.7 billion ($8.7 billion) before the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. With that legislation and the Secure America Act combined, ICE's annual budget is expected to reach roughly £21 billion ($27.7 billion), surpassing the annual military budgets of Iran, Turkey, Spain, and Mexico, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
No Guardrails, No Accountability Mechanisms
Critics of the bill centred their opposition on what it does not contain. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it 'a £54 billion ($70 billion) blank check, with no oversight, no accountability and no guardrails,' according to PBS NewsHour. Representative Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, asked during floor debate: 'Where is the common sense in giving this federal agency essentially unlimited funds without a single reform in place?'
Heidi Altman, vice president of the National Immigration Law Center, told NPR that the bill would mean the agency moves 'forward with even fewer accountability mechanisms than we've seen in the past.' She also flagged a specific £270 million ($350 million) provision directing enforcement funds toward localities deemed insufficiently cooperative with the administration's deportation agenda, warning that the DHS secretary holds 'wide discretion' over which jurisdictions qualify.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise dismissed Democratic objections in remarks on the House floor. 'I know our colleagues on the other side of the aisle would love to go back to open borders,' Scalise said. 'We won't let them.' Republicans characterised the vote as a fulfilment of their mandate to secure the border and protect communities.
Congress has not just funded a policy; it has built a machine, and machines do not dismantle themselves.
