How $45 billion in ‘big, beautiful bill' funding aids ICE detention

The Hill

13 hours ago

More than $45 billion in the 'big, beautiful bill' that President Trump signed Friday is earmarked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention space, which officials say will add up tens of thousands of beds for migrants being held in federal custody.
An estimated $170 billion of the bill has been designated for immigration enforcement as the Trump administration has promised to orchestrate the largest mass deportation effort in American history. But the funding that has been devoted to ICE detention space in the final bill. passed by the House on Thursday, is more than the government spent on housing migrants during the Obama, Biden and first Trump administrations combined, The Washington Post reported.
Federal officials estimate the $45 billion will provide an additional 100,000 beds in ICE facilities at a time when ICE has nearly 56,400 migrants in its detention centers nationwide as of mid-June, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The number of detainees increased by more than 5,000 during the first two weeks of June.
Data showed that of those detained, 28 percent have a prior criminal conviction, while 25 percent have pending criminal charges.
The funding bump in the bill was approved after Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary (DHS) Kristi Noem toured a new detention facility that administration officials have called 'Alligator Alcatraz.' White House Border Czar Tom Homan told NewsNation's 'CUOMO' this week that the facility in the Florida Everglades will cost an estimated $450 million to operate each year.
But officials said the facility could be a blueprint for more ICE detention centers that the government plans to open now that funding has been approved.
President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others, tour 'Alligator Alcatraz,' a new migrant detention facility at Dade-Collier Training and Transition facility, Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in Ochopee, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
'Everybody we arrest, we need a bed, because they're going to be in detention from several days to several months, depending on the case,' Homan said. 'So, this will give us a little breathing room, give us extra beds so we can target more criminals throughout the country.'
The border czar had previously called on Congress to provide more funding for detention that would allow ICE to detain migrants taken into federal custody. In June, the agency published a list of more than 40 contractors that could assist with the 'emergency acquisition' of space for migrant detainees, the Post reported.
In addition to the $45 billion set aside for ICE detention and agents, the funding bill that was approved by Congress this week allocates another $46 billion for continued construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Real Clear Politics reported this week that the $45 billion that will be devoted to ICE represents a 265 percent increase in its current detention budget, which will be higher than that of the American prison system.
The current load of detainees is the highest since that data has been compiled by ICE since the first time Trump was in office. In addition to providing more beds, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement to the Post that the funding for ICE in the bill will allow the agency to hire an additional 10,000 federal agents.
Officials announced earlier this year that the agency's migrant detention centers were at capacity. The government contracts with private prison companies to operate detention facilities. The two main companies, CoreCivic and the GEO Group, have been awarded nine contracts by ICE for expanded detention, per the Post.
Contracts have also been awarded to companies to produce temporary tent structures, which would be used to house migrants, the report said. Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) determined through a Freedom of Information Act request that private companies were looking to enter into government contracts in states like Michigan, California, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Washington state.
The Post's report indicated that CoreCivic and the Geo Group already own prisons that are sitting empty in several states, including Kansas (Leavenworth), Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Oklahoma.
The ACLU also reported that in 2022, the GEO Group made $1.05 billion in revenue from ICE contracts alone, while CoreCivic made $552.2 million during the same year.
'Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now,' said CoreCivic CEO Damon Hininger during an earnings call in May with shareholders, according to The Associated Press.
The expansion of detention space comes at a time when more than a dozen people have died in ICE facilities since October, including 10 during 2025. In 2024, an ACLU report indicated that 95 percent of deaths that took place in ICE facilities between 2017 and 2021 could have been prevented or possibly prevented.
That investigation, which was conducted by the ACLU, American Oversight and Physicians for Human Rights, analyzed the deaths of the 52 people who died in ICE custody during that time frame.