How does ICE funding compare to other US law enforcement agencies?
Executive summary
ICE’s funding has surged in the last two years from a roughly $10 billion baseline to a posture where, accounting for a large multi‑year supplemental, the agency could have about $29 billion per year available — a level reporters say makes Immigration and Customs Enforcement the highest‑funded U.S. law enforcement agency by some measures [1] [2] [3]. Advocates and watchdogs warn that the windfall eclipses spending on other federal law‑enforcement missions and comes with trade‑offs and unanswered questions about long‑term budgeting [3] [4].
1. How sharply ICE’s budget jumped and why that matters
ICE’s annual base budget had hovered around $10 billion for years after being much smaller a decade ago — under $6 billion in 2015 — but a 2025 law created a roughly $75 billion supplemental that ICE can draw over as many as four years, a shift that analysts say could translate into nearly $29 billion per year if spent evenly alongside the base budget [1] [5] [2]. Local and national outlets report that this infusion effectively triples recent ICE spending levels and leaves the agency with unprecedented resources to expand detention, enforcement and contracting [2] [6].
2. Where ICE sits compared with other federal law enforcement budgets
Reporting and advocacy analyses find that the ICE funding package outstrips budgets for many other federal law enforcement functions: NPR and partner outlets note the Trump administration’s 2026 Justice Department request — which includes the FBI — is a little over $35 billion, and the Brennan Center states that the ICE slice — “nearly $29 billion” in current planning — exceeds the budgets for all other non‑immigration federal law‑enforcement activities combined [1] [3]. That framing has led multiple outlets to call ICE the highest‑funded U.S. law‑enforcement agency under the new spending structure [2] [1].
3. Trade‑offs flagged by reporters and advocates
Critics say most of the money is being steered toward arrest, detention and deportation rather than immigration court capacity or legal services, and note provisions that could fund more detention facilities, including for families — moves the Brennan Center and local advocates argue come at the expense of crime‑prevention programs and other Justice Department priorities [2] [3]. Coverage also ties the funding boost to policy choices: proponents frame it as commensurate with an expanded enforcement mission, while opponents warn of a growing “deportation‑industrial complex” and diminishing resources for non‑enforcement public‑safety work [1] [3].
4. Important caveats: metrics, timing and what “largest” means
Independent fact‑checkers and analysts caution that comparisons depend on the metric and timing: congressional appropriations and agency spending plans for FY2026 were still being finalized, so whether ICE is definitively larger than the FBI or the entire Justice Department on a sustained basis depends on how the supplemental is allocated and how Congress finalizes base budgets [4]. Several outlets therefore report the practical near‑term outcome — large sums available to ICE now — while PolitiFact emphasizes the unresolved nature of future annual base budgets and comparative metrics [4].
5. Bottom line: unprecedented scale, but not unambiguous dominance
The available reporting documents an unprecedented infusion that places ICE’s funding at a scale rivaling or exceeding other federal law‑enforcement budgets in practical terms today, and one that observers say transforms enforcement capacity and incentives [1] [3] [2]. At the same time, caveats about final congressional appropriations, different ways to measure “size,” and competing budgetary priorities mean the label “largest” is accurate in many current accounts but rests on a mix of one‑time supplements, spending timelines and contested policy choices [4] [3].