WASHINGTON, D.C. – In the past week, we’ve seen the horror and unnecessary loss of life that ICE encounters can lead to, underscoring the dangers and violence directly resulting from this drastic increase in immigration enforcement funding. Between the July 2025 and June 2026 reconciliation bills, Congress committed a historic $261 billion for DHS enforcement, on top of regular appropriations to ICE and CBP of roughly $30 billion for FY25. Updated analysis by FWD.us shows how this massive funding has already begun to expand the reach of the criminal justice system as well as dramatically ramp up immigration enforcement.

The 287(g) program is a central component of the administration’s efforts to have state and local law enforcement agencies carry out its immigration enforcement agenda — and it is expanding at a stunning rate. In February, FWD.us released a brief highlighting the dangers of the 287(g) program, and specifically the previously discredited Task Force Model, which allows police and sheriff’s deputies to enforce civil immigration law on the streets. Today, 20 states have at least one state-level agency signed up. Explosive growth of the Task Force Model means that 1 in 4 Americans now live in one of the 17 states whose highway patrol, state police department, or department of public safety overseeing highway patrol is now enlisted in the effort, opening up major swaths of American roadways to civil immigration enforcement.   

Earlier analysis of a leaked ICE record showed that $257 million had already been paid or promised to state and local law enforcement agencies, out of a total $1.4 to $2 billion estimated to flow in 2026 alone. Recent program growth and continued funding expansions to ICE writ-large suggest that prior estimates represent just the tip of the iceberg of this massive infusion of federal funds heading to local and state law enforcement agencies.

“The consequences of this all-of-government approach to immigration enforcement are already being felt by millions and millions of Americans,” said Todd Schulte, President of FWD.us. “The administration has explicitly said their goal is to enact their incredibly harmful agenda in less visible ways, hoping to avoid headlines and pushback. But now that they have yet more money and new arrest quotas, we should be alarmed but not surprised by what we see unfolding across the country. These funding streams should be of heightened urgency; we cannot accept this as a new baseline of enforcement.”

Read the full memo here.

Read the updated 287(g) brief here.

To help in Texas and Maine, you can click here for Texas and  here for Maine.

Our team of experts is available for further discussion and comment. Please email us at press@fwd.us.