The Progressive
Alliyah Lusuegro
07/15/2026
President Donald Trump and other Republicans like to say the United States does not have money for programs that address the needs of ordinary citizens.
“It’s not possible for us to take care of day care, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things,” Trump said recently, saying that the nation had more important things to do, like “fighting wars.”
But in fact, the nation has plenty of money for such programs. It’s just that Trump wants to spend it on other things, like funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.
In a largely party-line vote this June, Congress granted the Trump Administration another $70 billion for ICE and others to conduct mass deportations and detention. This colossal increase came less than a year after Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocated an unprecedented $170 billion through 2029 for his cruel immigration crackdown.
American families are grappling with a cost of living crisis; many are struggling to cover rent, groceries, electric bills, and health care. Yet rather than helping working people make ends meet, Republicans have, in these two bills, authorized a staggering $240 billion for the systematic separation of families and disruption of communities.
This new total equates to eight years of funding for ICE and Border Patrol. It is a sum greater than the gross domestic product of 161 nations.
