Trump Signs $70B Immigration Enforcement Megabill Into Law

President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act into law on Wednesday, a $70 billion Republican megabill that funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) through the end of his term, ending a months-long partisan standoff that triggered a 75-day partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security. The legislation, which narrowly passed the House 214-212 and the Senate 52-47 along party lines, uses budget reconciliation to bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold and provides multi-year funding that critics say reduces congressional oversight of immigration enforcement.

Background: The Funding Standoff

The standoff traces back to January 2026, when two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, were killed by federal agents in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement operation. The deaths prompted Democrats to demand reforms to immigration enforcement practices, including mandatory body cameras on ICE officers, a prohibition on wearing masks during operations, and a requirement for judicial warrants before entering homes.

When Democrats refused to fund ICE and CBP without these reforms, the broader DHS appropriations process stalled, leading to a 75-day partial government shutdown beginning in mid-February. According to CBS News, the shutdown ended in April when both parties agreed to fund non-immigration DHS functions separately, while negotiations over ICE and CBP funding continued.

Those negotiations eventually collapsed, and Republicans opted to use budget reconciliation — a legislative process allowing spending bills with direct budgetary consequences to pass the Senate with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes typically needed to overcome a filibuster.

Key Provisions of the Secure America Act

The legislation provides approximately $70 billion in funding through September 30, 2029. As TIME reported, the breakdown includes $38.5 billion for ICE to hire, pay, and train personnel — including $7 billion for Homeland Security Investigations agents — and $22.6 billion for CBP to hire, pay, train, and equip border patrol agents and support personnel. An additional $3.5 billion is allocated for border security technology improvements, and $5 billion is set aside as a discretionary fund for the DHS Secretary.

Notably, the legislation further inflates ICE’s budget beyond the $75 billion windfall the agency received from Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act in 2025, which already made it the most heavily funded law enforcement agency in the federal government.

Controversies That Nearly Derailed the Bill

Two major controversies threatened to derail the legislation. The first involved Trump’s request for $1 billion for Secret Service security upgrades related to his planned White House East Wing ballroom renovation. The Senate parliamentarian ruled this violated the Byrd Rule, which prohibits extraneous provisions in reconciliation bills, and Republicans removed it.

The second was the Justice Department’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, stemming from Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax records. The Guardian reported that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified before a House committee that the DOJ would not move forward with the fund, though Trump later suggested on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would prefer it move forward.

Political Reactions

At the signing ceremony in the Oval Office, Trump said the bill would “give the heroes of ICE and Border Patrol — and that’s what they are, they’re heroes — the support and resources they need to defend our borders, protect our homeland and to keep America safe.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated the vote, saying, “All that Democrats have achieved by their shutdown is a useful reminder to the American people of their support for open borders and keeping criminal illegal immigrants in American communities.”

Democrats were unified in opposition. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries argued the bill would “waste $70bn in taxpayer money to give a blank check to ICE without any guardrails, any oversight, any accountability,” as CNBC reported. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer referred to it as “$70 billion for President Trump’s corrupt police force.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the lone Republican to vote against the bill. She told NBC News that while she believed strongly in funding ICE and CBP, “to completely bypass regular order and the appropriations process by funding for three and a half years, to me … it takes it out of the process that we have always looked to for funding our agencies.”

Analysis and Implications

The multi-year funding mechanism represents a significant shift in congressional power dynamics. By funding ICE and CBP for three fiscal years instead of the usual one, Congress has effectively ceded its annual power of the purse over immigration enforcement until after Trump leaves office. Border Czar Tom Homan has already signaled what this means operationally, promising that with guaranteed funding, “you’re going to see targeting increase, you’re going to see arrests increase.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, framed the bill as a major victory, stating, “Despite Democrat efforts to shut down ICE and Border Patrol, Republicans have now fully funded these agencies through President Trump’s entire second term to the tune of nearly $70 billion.”

The use of budget reconciliation to fund entire agencies for multiple years could set a precedent for bypassing regular order and bipartisan compromise on future spending battles. Democrats, having lost their leverage over immigration enforcement funding, cannot use future appropriations processes to pressure ICE and CBP until the next administration.

What’s Next

With the Secure America Act now law, attention turns to how the expanded funding will translate into operational changes. ICE is reportedly targeting 100,000 detention beds, and enforcement operations are expected to intensify. The question of whether the Trump administration will attempt to revive the anti-weaponization fund through other legislative or executive means remains open, as does the broader impact of the immigration enforcement debate on the 2026 midterm elections.

As the Daily Signal noted, the bill’s passage represents a major legislative win for Trump and House Speaker Johnson, who managed a historically slim Republican majority. But the controversies that nearly derailed it — particularly the ballroom and anti-weaponization fund disputes — revealed fractures between Trump’s priorities and congressional Republicans’ willingness to support them, tensions that are likely to resurface.