Over the past year, the Trump administration has escalated immigration enforcement at historic scale — expanding detention, revoking lawful status, and embedding immigration enforcement deeper into the criminal justice system — backed by an unprecedented $261 billion in enforcement funding financed by cutting hundreds of billions in American's health care.

The Administration has leveraged these funds to quickly and dramatically ratchet up the scale of “immigration enforcement” in the country: violently arresting individuals, net widening criminalization, detaining families in abhorrent conditions, and tearing communities apart. The Trump administration is further accelerating this agenda by funneling up to $2 billion into state and local law enforcement—a 15x increase in funding—to weaponize the criminal justice system through the 287(g) program. This massive, unaccountable infusion of cash incentivizes police and sheriffs to act as an arm of federal immigration enforcement, putting communities at heightened risk of detention and deportation.

But it doesn’t stop there; the mass raids and occupying cities, converting warehouses into jails, investment in new child and family ICE jails, incarceration of children, record numbers of deportations—including to third countries—expansion of police surveillance, and funneling of money and contracts into private corporations with proven records of both incarceration profiteering and human rights abuses are all markers of aggressive enforcement overreach. 

From Illinois to Maine, the public is standing up against this overreach and violence. As the administration continues to press ahead, we must act now to stop this agenda; otherwise, we will spend generations undoing the harm and investments of the last two years. We can make a difference when we stand up for what is right. Two places where you can make a difference right now are Dilley, Texas, and Alexandria, Louisiana.