What is the annual budget for ICE and Customs and Border Protection in 2025?
Executive summary
Congress’s 2025 reconciliation package and related appropriations dramatically expanded funding for immigration enforcement: several analyses report CBP receiving roughly $64.7 billion for FY2025 and ICE receiving tens of billions through supplemental reconciliation money (reports cite about $29.8–$45 billion in new ICE funding tied to the 2025 package) in addition to or combined with annual appropriations that range from roughly $10.5 billion to $11+ billion depending on the document [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].
1. What the headline numbers mean: two pots of money
Reporting and agency documents describe two different funding categories for 2025: (A) traditional annual appropriations that set base agency budgets for FY2025, and (B) large supplemental/reconciliation allocations passed in mid‑2025 that add multiyear, mostly enforcement‑focused funds. The Congressional Research Service and related reporting list CBP’s total FY2025 appropriation at about $64.73 billion (which reflects both base and reconciliation additions) [1]. For ICE, fact‑checking and advocacy reports show supplemental reconciliation allocations of about $29.85 billion to $45 billion on top of (or alongside) annual appropriations and the agency’s normal base budget [2] [6] [3].
2. ICE: baseline budget vs. reconciliation windfall
Pre‑reconciliation figures and agency budget documents show ICE’s traditional annual appropriations near $10–11 billion in various House and DHS documents (House summary reported $10.5 billion; DHS FY2026 materials show ICE at $11.3 billion in the FY2026 request) [4] [5]. Independent fact‑checks and reporting on the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (the July 2025 reconciliation measure) conclude the Senate package would allocate at least $29.85 billion to ICE through September of that fiscal year, and some advocacy groups frame the broader reconciliation money as $45 billion for detention over multiple years — producing widely different headline totals depending on whether one counts only recurring appropriations or also the large supplemental funds [2] [6].
3. CBP: already large, then multiplied by reconciliation
Congressional reporting and analysis put CBP’s FY2025 resources far above previous years: a CRS summary and related reporting cite CBP at about $64.73 billion for FY2025 once the reconciliation measure and appropriations are combined [1]. Some House appropriations language earlier in the year proposed much smaller figures (e.g., $18.26 billion in one House bill), illustrating that totals vary sharply by source and by whether supplemental reconciliation money is included [4] [1].
4. How advocates and analysts read the math — sharply different framings
Advocacy organizations and watchdogs emphasize the reconciliation package’s enforcement focus and present larger totals: the American Immigration Council highlighted $29.9 billion toward ICE enforcement and deportation operations and framed that as tripling ICE’s annual budget [7]. Detention‑focused groups and left‑leaning outlets described $45 billion for ICE detention and $59 billion to “militarize the border” as parts of a four‑year enforcement surge [6] [8]. The Brennan Center and other analysts translate multiyear packages into annualized equivalents and note CBP’s roughly $20 billion or larger FY2025 appropriation prior to reconciliation, then the much larger totals after the package [3] [1].
5. Why totals diverge: timing, accounting, and what’s “counted”
The divergence stems from different accounting choices: some sources report only base annual appropriations (House FY25 bill numbers or DHS base requests), others add reconciliation/supplemental funds that are available through Sept. 2029 or multiple years, and some groups aggregate detention‑specific pots separately from operational pay and hiring lines. Snopes’ fact‑check explains that the reconciliation bill would add at least $29.85 billion to ICE through September and that simple comparisons to a single prior budget year can mislead without distinguishing base vs. supplemental funding [2].
6. What’s clear and what the sources do not say
Clear: multiple official and secondary sources agree 2025 was a turning point where Congress and reconciliation legislation dramatically increased resources for ICE and CBP — with CBP shown at about $64.73 billion in CRS reporting and ICE receiving tens of billions in supplemental reconciliation allocations [1] [2]. Not found in current reporting: a single, universally agreed “annual budget for ICE” number that both (a) excludes supplemental reconciliation funds and (b) reconciles every accounting choice across House, Senate, DHS, and advocacy reports. Different sources present different valid totals depending on whether they include the reconciliation pots, annual appropriations only, detention‑specific funding, or multiyear sums [7] [6] [4].
7. Bottom line for readers
If you mean the traditional FY2025 recurring appropriations, ICE’s commonly cited base range is roughly $10–11 billion while CBP’s traditional funds vary by bill but aggregate to tens of billions; if you include the July 2025 reconciliation/supplemental package, CBP’s FY2025 total rises to roughly $64.73 billion and ICE receives an additional tens of billions (estimates often cited are ~$29.85 billion to as much as $45 billion in detention‑focused money), producing the much larger headline totals [4] [5] [1] [2] [6].