The American Immigration Council is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. The reconciliation bill President Donald Trump signed last month increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention budget by more than 300%, making the immigration enforcement machine’s budget comparable to that of some foreign armed forces. ICE has begun hiring thousands of new agents; it is trying to lure recruits with $50,000 signing bonuses, and last week Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem lifted the age cap for new ICE hires.
Six months into his second term, Trump’s immigration policy is what many feared it would be when he was elected.
This goes beyond simply getting “tough” on immigration. The administration is undertaking an unprecedented realignment of the federal government, turning it into a detention and deportation machine that threatens communities, upends legal norms and shakes the foundation of American democracy.
In the next month, detentions under the Trump administration are expected to hit 60,000 people — the highest number in modern history. And the vast majority of those detained have no criminal record, no pending charges and, in many cases, they have a legal basis to be in the country. But that no longer seems to matter. The goal isn’t justice. It’s fear and authoritarian control.
