ICE is quite unpopular – even more so than when ‘abolish ICE’ was a thing

When we look back at the passage of President Donald Trump’s big agenda bill in a few years, it’s quite possible that it won’t be the extension of the tax cuts or the cuts to Medicaid that will stick out, but rather its historic expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

When we look back at the passage of President Donald Trump’s big agenda bill in a few years, it’s quite possible that it won’t be the extension of the tax cuts or the cuts to Medicaid that will stick out, but rather its historic expansion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bill delivered ICE a huge windfall ($75 billion through 2029) that should make it by far the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in the US government. PolitiFact calculated that ICE could be funded at an average annual rate of $27.7 billion, compared to the FBI’s $10 billion budget. This has led to plenty of concern among Trump’s critics about what that expansion will entail. He’s already signaled he’s willing to go to very controversial places in using law enforcement for his federal immigration crackdown and the military to back up his deportation efforts. He’ll also have more control over ICE than he would with the FBI, given post-Watergate reforms that made the FBI and the broader Justice Department more independent of the president. ICE has fewer such guardrails surrounding it. And even setting aside further potential politicization of federal law enforcement, there are the problems that can emerge when trying to quickly hire thousands of people for difficult jobs. A rapid 2000s-era expansion of the US Border Patrol led to standards being relaxed and a spike in misconduct. Whether any of that comes to pass remains to be seen. But what has become abundantly clear in recent days is that this expansion is ill-timed, politically speaking. Americans are increasingly quite negative toward ICE and skeptical of its actions.