What was the ICE budget in 2020 versus 2024?
Executive summary
FY2024 spending for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reported in agency materials as $8.7 billion for FY2024, while independent data aggregators put ICE’s 2024 net spending at roughly $9.99 billion after adjustment (DHS; USAFacts) [1] [2]. The sources provided do not include a clear, single-line FY2020 appropriation figure, so a precise like‑for‑like dollar comparison between FY2020 and FY2024 cannot be asserted from these documents alone; CRS and USAspending are cited as the primary repositories for year‑by‑year appropriations data [3] [4].
1. Official FY2024 baseline: the DHS number and how reporters cite it
The Department of Homeland Security’s publicly posted FY2024 budget documents list the FY2024 ICE appropriation as $8.7 billion, including staffing levels and FTE counts, and that number is the agency’s own “official” FY2024 baseline figure used in program justification [1]. National reporting and analysis often cite a slightly different 2024 total because they either use net spending measures adjusted for inflation or they fold in different budget components; for example, USAFacts reports ICE net spending of about $9.99 billion in 2024 when placed in a longer historical series [2].
2. Why single‑year comparisons are tricky: accounting conventions and supplements
A simple side‑by‑side year comparison of ICE funding is complicated by how budgets are presented: agency budget requests and appropriation tables (DHS/ICE) differ from “net spending” series compiled by third parties, and reconciliation or supplemental legislation can front‑load multi‑year sums into a single fiscal accounting period for scorekeeping purposes [1] [2] [3]. Reporters and analysts note that later legislation in 2025 created large multi‑year supplements that dramatically changed what ICE could obligate after 2024, making comparisons across years more fraught without careful definition of which funds are being counted [5] [6].
3. What the available sources say — the numbers and the caveats
Using the sources supplied: DHS’s ICE FY2024 budget document states $8.7 billion for FY2024 [1]; USAFacts’ data series—an independent, nonpartisan aggregator—places ICE net spending at $9.99 billion in 2024 when shown in inflation‑adjusted historical context [2]. The Congressional Research Service materials and related appropriations reporting referenced in the dataset note that FY2020–FY2024 appropriations and custody‑operations detail are drawn from internal appropriations databases and ICE budget justifications, implying the FY2020 data exist in those primary records, but those FY2020 line items are not quoted verbatim in the material supplied here [3] [7].
4. What cannot be confirmed from the provided reporting: FY2020 exact appropriation
None of the clipped sources in the packet include a direct, attributable FY2020 ICE appropriation line (dollar figure) that can be cited here; therefore any precise FY2020 dollar stated without consulting ICE budget justifications, CRS tables, or USAspending would exceed what the provided reporting supports [3] [4]. Historical context in the supplied pieces shows a steady rise in ICE spending over the last decade and cites earlier benchmarks (for example, ICE was under $6 billion in the mid‑2010s), but that is not the same as providing FY2020’s enacted appropriation in the sources provided [8] [2].
5. Bigger context: 2024 as a hinge year before massive supplemental funds
Multiple analyses emphasize that 2024 constituted a high‑point in the trajectory of ICE’s base appropriations, and that subsequent legislative action in 2025 provided very large, multi‑year supplements—figures in the tens of billions—that dramatically increased ICE’s spending authority after FY2024, making post‑2024 comparisons particularly consequential [5] [6] [9]. Those later funds are not intrinsic to the FY2024 baseline figure and are counted differently across sources, which helps explain the different 2024 totals cited by DHS, independent trackers, and advocacy organizations [1] [2] [5].
Exact FY2020 and FY2024 apples‑to‑apples comparisons require pulling the FY2020 enacted appropriation from primary budget tables (ICE budget justifications, CRS appropriation tables, or USAspending entries) and deciding whether to compare nominal appropriations, net outlays, or inflation‑adjusted spending; the documentation provided here supplies an unequivocal FY2024 agency baseline ($8.7B) and an independent 2024 net‑spending figure (~$9.99B), but does not supply the FY2020 dollar to complete the direct numerical comparison from these sources alone [1] [2] [3].