ICE has spent more than $70 million on new weapons in the first nine months of President Donald Trump’s second term, a 700 percent increase on the same period in 2024, according to a report.
Citing records from the Federal Procurement Data System, Popular Information reports that the immigration force, which answers to Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, spent $71,515,762 on purchases of “small arms, ordnance and ordnance accessories manufacturing” between January 20 and October 18.
That compares to $9,715,843 in the equivalent period in 2024 under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, and an average annual spend of just $8.4 million in the current president’s first term between 2017 and 2021.
“Small arms” refers to armor, explosives, chemical weapons, pistols, and rifles while “ordnance and ordnance accessories manufacturing” denotes other materials like artillery, barrels, extractors, and mounts.
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Independent that reporting that some of ICE’s spending had gone on “guided missile warheads and explosive components” was false.
“ICE buying its law enforcement officers guns and non-lethal resources is a non-story,” she said. “It should come as no surprise that we purchase and acquire firearms for law enforcement – especially amid the increased onboarding of 11,000 agents thanks to President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill.”
McLaughlin urged the press to cover “the 1,000 percent increase in assaults against law enforcement including terrorist attacks, cars being used as weapons, and officers having rocks and Molotov cocktails thrown at them.”
While the majority of the money has been spent on guns and armor for field agents, the outlay has also seen ICE purchase “guided missile warheads and explosive components,” according to Popular Information.
The Independent has also contacted the White House and ICE for comment.
Despite the rapid uptick in investment, officials from the agency claimed that more money from Congress would be needed to expand the use of bodycams, the Associated Press reports.
The comments came from Shawn Byers, deputy field office director for ICE, at a hearing on Monday as he addressed complaints that ICE agents are using increasingly combative tactics.
Trump’s mission to bring about the “largest mass deportation program in history” by rounding up and removing undocumented immigrants in the United States illegally has seen ICE’s role greatly expanded and the agency flooded with federal funding.
It currently estimates that it has approximately 20,000 active agents but Assistant Secretary McLaughlin recently said it has received “more than 175,000 applications” to join its ranks as a result of an ad blitz on platforms like Spotify, X, Meta, YouTube, and LinkedIn, with “more than 18,000 tentative job offers” issued.
McLaughlin added that the department’s “incentive processing,” such as signing-on bonuses, will continue during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which she blamed Democrats for.
Official data published at the end of September reported that there are currently 59,762 people being held in ICE detention centers.
The agency’s increased prominence has brought increased criticism over its methods, however. In June, its operations in downtown Los Angeles attracted mass protests, prompting Trump to activate the National Guard against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who warned it would escalate the existing tensions.
ICE has also attracted a deluge of unwanted headlines for the administration, including the recent revelation that it has arrested at least 20 children who are American citizens this year, two of whom had cancer.
Reports of operations involving armed agents “traumatizing” mothers and children and firing pepper balls at a priest attending a demonstration have not helped their publicity drive.
“What we’re seeing is a general escalation of violence and the use of excessive force by ICE officers,” Ed Yohnka of ACLU Illinois told NPR recently.
Yohnka has filed a lawsuit on behalf of protesters who believe that ICE’s tactics have violated their constitutional rights, stating: “All over the country, federal agents have shot, gassed, and detained individuals engaged in cherished and protected activities.”
The suit accuses ICE and other federal agencies of “the dangerous and indiscriminate use of near-lethal weapons such as tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper-balls, flash grenades, and other unwarranted and disproportionate tactics.”
