OBBBA gave ICE $75 billion over four years. That is more than the entire military budgets of most countries. The sections below document what the money is funding.
This page sources every figure to government reporting, court records, or named news investigations. Where a database is doing the counting rather than a government agency, we say so. It contains no estimates of our own.
Oct. 9: The federal government declined New York State's request to pause immigration enforcement after an agent shot a man in the Bronx on Oct. 8. The man, who had a 5-year-old in the car, was grazed on the neck. DHS says officers believed they were in danger.
Sept. 28: Fifteen county sheriffs asked a federal judge to pause New York's new law ending local police partnerships with ICE. Their request is still pending.
NY Focus, Sept. 28, 2026 · North Country Public Radio, Sept. 29, 2026
Aug. 28: New York State sued the Rensselaer County Sheriff's Office for keeping its 2018 agreement with ICE past the Aug. 25 deadline under the state law. The state asks a court to declare the agreement void.
Early voting runs Oct. 24 to Nov. 1. Election Day is Nov. 3.
What OBBBA gave ICE
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act appropriated $75 billion for ICE enforcement and detention over four years. That works out to roughly $19 billion a year. Added to about $10 billion in regular annual funding, ICE's budget is around $29 billion a year.
Appropriated for ICE enforcement and detention over four years under OBBBA, or about $19 billion a year. With about $10 billion in regular funding, ICE's annual budget is around $29 billion.
Newsweek, citing the enacted appropriation. View source →
ICE's new annual budget exceeds the entire military budgets of Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Romania and Morocco. It is close to Canada's (~$29.3B).
Newsweek, comparing published defense budgets. View source →
In ICE and CBP detention/enforcement contracts for FY2025 alone. 86% of detainees are now held in privately run facilities.
ICE Tracking Database (Rice University), compiling federal contract data. View source →
A decade ago, ICE's entire annual budget was under $6 billion. It's now roughly five times that.
Newsweek. View source →
What that funding has coincided with
46 people died in ICE custody between January 2025 and March 2026. That is the highest toll in over two decades. Below that aggregate, a small number of specific, extensively documented cases show what "in custody" and "during an operation" have meant in practice.
Deaths in ICE custody, January 2025–March 18, 2026. That is the highest in over two decades. 33 in 2025 alone, versus 11 in all of 2024.
KFF, analyzing government detainee death reporting. View source →
KFF. View source →
ICE arrests in July 2026, up 15% from 43,021 in June and the highest month of Trump's second term. For the first time this term, more than half of those arrested had only civil immigration violations, with no criminal conviction or pending charges. About 4% had a violent criminal conviction.
CBS News, Aug. 27, 2026, using ICE data obtained by the Deportation Data Project · Just the News, Aug. 25, 2026. View CBS analysis → View Just the News report →
Appeared in an immigration court in Harlingen, Texas on Sept. 28, 2026. A group of 15 had no attorney. Children as young as 3 appeared, and an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old appeared without one.
CNN, Sept. 29, 2026. View source →
Renee Nicole Good, 37
A U.S. citizen, poet, and mother of three, shot and killed by an ICE agent while driving. She had just dropped her six-year-old off at school. Bystander video captured the shooting and its aftermath, including agents preventing a doctor from reaching her.
American Immigration Council. View source →
Alex Pretti, 37
An ICU nurse, shot and killed by Border Patrol agents 17 days after Good's death, while holding only a phone. Video showed agents tackle and disarm him before the fatal shooting.
American Immigration Council. View source →
Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55
Died in custody at the Camp East Montana facility. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide from asphyxia due to neck and torso compression. Witnesses said five guards held him down while one squeezed his neck.
American Immigration Council. View source →
Jaime Alanís Garcia, 56
A farmworker who died after falling from a greenhouse roof while fleeing during a chaotic ICE raid on the farm where he worked.
CNN · ABC7 Los Angeles. View source →
For the fuller record beyond these four cases, KFF, the American Immigration Council, and the Rice University ICE Tracking Database each maintain ongoing, sourced case logs. These are linked throughout this section and in Sources below.
What the lawsuits and claims show
Alongside the deaths, a growing body of litigation documents wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens and use-of-force claims against ICE and CBP agents.
U.S. citizens documented as detained by ICE, through October 2025.
ICE Tracking Database (Rice University), compiling court records and news reports. View source →
Legal claims filed by ACLU affiliates on behalf of people harmed by federal immigration agents.
American Civil Liberties Union. View source →
Tort claims pending against ICE nationwide, seeking a combined $55.5 billion or more in damages, per the agency's own fiscal reporting.
Reported by Jeelani Law Firm, citing ICE fiscal disclosures.
Paid out in settlements as of the most recent public accounting. That is a fraction of what has been claimed.
Reported by Jeelani Law Firm, citing ICE fiscal disclosures.
Rafie Ollah Shouhed, 79
A business owner who filed a $50 million claim over his arrest.
Jeelani Law Firm, citing ICE litigation records.
George Retes
An Iraq War veteran who filed a tort claim against ICE over his arrest; amount undisclosed.
Jeelani Law Firm, citing ICE litigation records.
A note on sourcing: the $55.5B and 170+ figures come from a law firm's reporting on ICE's own fiscal disclosures and a university-built tracking database, respectively. Neither comes from a public tally published by ICE or DHS. We name where each number comes from so you can weigh it accordingly.
What $70 billion could fund instead
These comparisons come from U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock's office, built on research from Wharton, the Center for American Progress, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and USDA. They are calculated against $70 billion, which is close to but not identical to OBBBA's $75 billion ICE appropriation.
Sen. Raphael Warnock's office, citing Wharton, CAP, BLS, USDA
$70 billion could instead pay for:
Of universal pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-old in the country.
Children given free childcare through September 2028.
Students given two years of community college tuition.
Households given a year of groceries.
More Americans covered by Medicaid through September 2029.
Americans given a year of rent.
These are alternatives, not promises. They come from a Senator's office calculation of what the same dollar figure buys elsewhere in the federal budget, and this page does not propose them. Full list and methodology →
Bruce Blakeman's statements on ICE
From early 2025 until New York's new law ended local ICE cooperation agreements in August, Nassau County operated a formal partnership with ICE. Below are Blakeman's statements about that policy, with dates and sources.
"Kathy Hochul talks about atrocities committed by ICE. She is a liar."
Said at a press conference with Rep. Mike Lawler in Chappaqua, Oct. 6, 2026. He also said, "There have been no atrocities committed by ICE in New York state," and "We didn't raid one church, we didn't raid one school, we didn't raid one daycare center." He described Nassau's former ICE agreement as "the most comprehensive agreement with ICE in America."
Source: City & State, Oct. 6, 2026.
"This law is written in the blood of the victims, past, present and future."
On the new state law ending local ICE cooperation agreements, as reported Aug. 28, 2026. He also said the law "is completely misguided and will make our communities less safe."
Source: Fox News, Aug. 28, 2026.
"We are working with ICE and our other federal law enforcement partners to remove or incarcerate those who commit criminal acts and live in the US illegally."
From a State of the County address. Blakeman has said one of his first executive orders as county executive declared Nassau "not a sanctuary county," and that Nassau was the first county in the U.S. to sign a federal 287(g)-style cooperation agreement with ICE.
Source: Herald Community Newspapers (Liherald.com).
"It's insane to remove a valuable crime-fighting resource... What's going on up here in Albany is a disgrace to the people of this state."
Said outside the state capitol, May 29, 2026, the day after New York law limited local ICE cooperation agreements. Blakeman also said, "We will take them to court."
Source: AOL/local news wire, May 29, 2026.
"In the unfortunate event of a Mamdani win, Nassau County will hire more police officers, increase cooperation with ICE, and actively encourage people and businesses to move to the safest county in America."
Statement from Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle, October 29, 2025, pledging expanded ICE cooperation contingent on a New York City mayoral outcome. Nassau's formal partnership at the time involved 10 cross-designated detectives and 50 reserved jail cells for ICE.
Source: New York Post, via subsequent reporting, Oct. 29, 2025.
"This is one of the saddest days of my life as county executive... I believe in the rule of law, even when it is a bad law, and this is a very bad and dangerous law."
August 26, 2026, announcing Nassau would comply with the new state law ending local 287(g) agreements. He added: "We will continue to work with ICE, but we will abide by the technicalities of the law," and two days later joined a lawsuit with 15 county sheriffs challenging the law's constitutionality.
Source: WSHU Public Radio · ABC7 New York, Aug. 26–28, 2026.
What the records show about who ICE arrests
These figures come from government arrest records and independent analysts, not from any campaign or county office. Each is sourced to where it was published.
Of people booked into ICE custody from Oct. 1, 2025 through the mid-November 2025 data cutoff had a violent criminal conviction. 73% had no criminal conviction at all, and nearly half had no conviction and no pending charges.
Cato Institute, Nov. 24, 2025, based on nonpublic ICE data. View source →
Of people ICE arrested from Jan. 20 to Oct. 15, 2025 had a violent criminal conviction, in a New York Times analysis of arrest records.
PolitiFact, via Poynter, Jan. 26, 2026. View source →
ICE arrests on Long Island from Jan. 20, 2025 through Aug. 6, 2026: 2,008 in Nassau County and 932 in Suffolk. 954 (32.4%) had a criminal conviction, 595 (20.2%) had pending charges, and 1,391 (47.3%) were listed as other immigration violators.
ICE arrest records via the Deportation Data Project (UC Berkeley and UCLA), reported by Long Island Guide, Sept. 5, 2026. View source →
People Nassau County police had handed to ICE, according to reports in late 2025. Most were first held for low-level offenses such as theft, prostitution and drug possession.
Long Island Press, Dec. 2025. View source →
A note on these figures: The 5% figure comes from nonpublic ICE data and the 7% figure from a newspaper analysis of arrest records. Neither is a public tally published by ICE or DHS. The Long Island categories describe a person's record at the time of arrest, and "other immigration violator" does not mean the person had no contact with the criminal justice system.
Fact-check: In April 2026, PolitiFact rated Mostly False a Blakeman statement that he "hired 600 new law enforcement officers and made Nassau the safest county in America." It reported that county comptroller records show police officers fell from 2,193 in 2022 to 1,932 in 2025, and that Nassau's index crime rate fell 13% from 2022 to 2024 while its violent crime rate stayed flat. View source →
What New York State did
These protections passed in the state budget in May 2026. Each one is explained below.
Is when New York's ban on local police and counties holding "287(g)" agreements with ICE took effect. A federal judge refused the Justice Department's request to block it.
Governor's office, Aug. 25, 2026. View source →
ICE can't enter the non-public areas of schools, colleges, child care centers, hospitals, shelters, libraries or polling places without a judge's warrant.
Governor's office. View source →
A new state law lets New Yorkers sue federal, state and local officials who violate their constitutional rights.
Governor's office. View source →
Early voting runs Oct. 24 to Nov. 1. Election Day is Nov. 3.
How this page was fact-checked
Every figure and quote above links to its source. The full list follows.
Page last fact-checked: September 9, 2026. News and policy sections updated Oct. 15, 2026. Figures and quotes reflect the best available government, court, and news sourcing as of this date. Where a figure comes from an advocacy or independently built database rather than a government agency, that's noted next to the figure.
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