Congress has directed roughly $70 billion to the Department of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, funding the agencies not for one fiscal year but through the end of President Trump's term. The House passed the measure on Tuesday by a vote of 214 to 212, and Trump signed the bill on Wednesday.

The vote ends a 115-day standoff over immigration funding. After federal officers shot and killed two protesters in Minneapolis earlier this year, Democrats refused to back more funding for ICE and Border Patrol, aiming to force changes to enforcement tactics. When negotiations collapsed, Republicans used the special budget procedure known as reconciliation to fund the agencies without accepting any of the demanded reforms. In the Senate last week, one Republican joined all Democrats in an unsuccessful attempt to block the measure.

What the money buys

The legislation gives ICE more than three times its last annual budget. Although the funding technically covers three years, it arrives as lump sums that must be spent only by the end of fiscal year 2029, with few stipulations on how and when to spend it. The package includes:

• $38 billion for ICE to hire, pay, train and equip officers and agents, including $7 billion for Homeland Security Investigations and $31 billion for immigration enforcement work such as hiring attorneys, supporting local law enforcement that coordinates with ICE, and technology like body cameras;
• $22 billion for Border Patrol to pay, train, recruit and equip agents, including $13 billion specifically for immigration enforcement;
• $5 billion for border security technology and screening, including artificial intelligence;
• $350 million for enforcement in localities that do not coordinate directly with ICE.

What the bill leaves out

The measure omits the reforms Democrats demanded, including requirements for judicial warrants to enter homes and a prohibition on officers wearing masks. It also lacks reforms with bipartisan support, such as mandating that officers wear body cameras.

An earlier measure passed in April, which funded most of DHS except ICE and Border Patrol, did include provisions for body camera purchases, congressional oversight of detention centers and deescalation training. That bill also provided $20 million for the DHS inspector general to conduct oversight of detention facilities. Neither measure funded the internal oversight offices that investigate detention center conditions.

Because the new money lasts until 2029, the agencies will be insulated from pressure through the annual appropriations process for three years.

An unprecedented boost on top of last year's

ICE's usual annual budget is about $10 billion. A $75 billion boost passed last summer through the same reconciliation process made ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency and enabled a hiring surge that doubled its ranks within months.

Former agency leaders, Democrats and some Republicans warn that the surge limits Congress's ability to oversee how the money is spent and how the agencies operate.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, the only Republican to vote against the measure in the Senate, wrote that appropriating funding for three fiscal years instead of one "weakens the normal budgeting process and sets another precedent for avoiding it when we find ourselves in disagreement."

"In doing so, it reduces Congress' ability to apply reasonable checks on immigration policy for the remainder of this administration and into the next," she wrote.

House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, defended the approach shortly before the vote: "This is not a slush fund, it's regular, normal funding. And we're going to do it not for one year, but for three years so we don't end up here again."

Agencies prepare to spend

ICE officials have been preparing for the new cash for months. "Apparently we're going to get more reconciliation money, so I got a shopping list," said Matt Elliston, ICE assistant director for law enforcement systems and analysis, speaking on a panel at the Border Security Expo in Arizona last month. His list includes wearable headset displays so officers do not need phones during operations, and data to help identify where arrest targets live.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said that without the reconciliation funds, the agency was struggling to pay its employees correctly and fulfill contracts.

Immigration advocates argue that funding the agencies outside the normal appropriations process strips out guardrails on how they do their work. Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, noted that past DHS annual funding bills included requirements to report data on detainees and specific treatment standards for pregnant women in custody.

"It's very dangerous," Altman said. "And it means that the agency will move forward with even fewer accountability mechanisms than we've seen in the past."

She also raised concerns about the $350 million dedicated to enforcement in areas that are not "qualified cooperating jurisdictions" — localities outside programs allowing local police to enforce federal immigration law. "The DHS secretary has wide discretion to just say these are not sufficiently cooperating with the White House's mass deportation agenda," she said.

The full text of the funding measure is published by Congress at congress.gov. Even if Democrats win control of Congress next year, their ability to extract policy changes through the appropriations process will be limited while the agencies hold resources lasting until 2029.