How much funding did U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement receive in 2024 and 2023?
Executive summary
Congressional and executive sources show multiple, slightly different figures for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding because observers report the President’s request, committee marks, and final enacted appropriations at different stages; the two most consistent baseline numbers in available reporting are roughly $8.5 billion for FY2023 and between $9.6–9.76 billion for FY2024 [1] [2] [3]. These gaps reflect request vs. enacted totals, supplemental and emergency asks, and intra‑DHS transfers, not a single contradictory accounting error [4] [5] [6].
1. What the raw numbers show: FY2023 baseline
The Department of Homeland Security’s published FY2023 budget documentation lists ICE’s FY2023 budget at $8.5 billion, with staffing figures alongside that appropriation [1]. Independent budget analyses and oversight summaries corroborate that level as the FY2023 baseline used in agency materials [1] [6].
2. What the raw numbers show: FY2024 request, committee figures, and enacted totals
For FY2024 the Administration’s budget documents and DHS materials present ICE funding requests and program justifications that differ from what Congress ultimately provided: DHS documents and the Administration framed budget requests and later FY25 requests relative to FY2024 baselines (for example, DHS’s FY2024 materials cite an $8.7 billion figure as a requested FY2024 level) [4] [5]. Congressional appropriations reporting shows higher figures: the Senate Appropriations highlights cite $9.6 billion for ICE in FY2024, and the text of H.R.4367—the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024—lists $9,758,297,000 for ICE operations and support in the enacted bill language [2] [3]. Advocacy and policy groups frequently cite the $9.6 billion figure as the enacted FY2024 funding in their analyses [7].
3. Why different sources report different numbers
The divergence among $8.7B, $9.6B, and $9.758B stems from three common causes: the Administration’s budget request vs. the House or Senate committee marks vs. the final enacted appropriation; separate line items for operations and support versus total ICE program funding; and inclusion or exclusion of emergency/supplemental funding and other adjustments [4] [2] [3]. The White House and OMB also frame combined CBP+ICE increases together in some fact sheets, which can obscure agency‑specific totals when read without the appropriation text [8].
4. Supplemental, emergency, and intra‑DHS transfers complicate the picture
Beyond baseline appropriations, ICE has frequently relied on transfers and supplemental moves: DHS notified Congress that it planned to move about $1.8 billion within DHS appropriations to assist ICE from FY2014 through FY2023, and the Administration requested emergency supplemental funds related to border operations in late 2023 that affected DHS totals overall [6] [9] [8]. Those transfers and supplemental requests mean that an “apples‑to‑apples” fiscal year comparison requires knowing whether a source includes only base appropriations or also emergency/supplemental and intra‑departmental adjustments [6] [8].
5. Broader trend and context
Multiple reports and analyses place ICE’s funding on an upward trajectory over the past two decades, noting that ICE’s budget nearly tripled from roughly $3.3 billion (post‑2003 baseline) toward figures near $9–10 billion in recent years, with FY2024 characterized as a high point in that trend [7] [10]. The President’s FY2025 budget documents show continued increases proposed for ICE — for example, the FY2025 request references $9.7 billion for ICE and identifies emergency-designated components — signaling that FY2024’s numbers are part of a sustained funding rise [5] [9].
6. Limitations in available reporting and open questions
Public documents cited here do not always use identical line‑item definitions (operations and support vs. total ICE account authority), nor do they uniformly state whether figures are base, supplemental, or net of intra‑DHS transfers, so precise reconciliation to the penny across all public sources requires consulting the full appropriations conference report and Treasury/OMB execution tables; absent those, reporting must be explicit about which figure it cites and why [4] [6] [3].
7. Bottom line
The best-supported, source‑specific answers are: FY2023 — approximately $8.5 billion as ICE’s baseline appropriation [1]; FY2024 — reported variously as about $8.7 billion in DHS budget materials, cited at $9.6 billion in Senate appropriations summaries, and spelled out in the enacted appropriations text as $9,758,297,000 for ICE operations and support [4] [2] [3]. Which figure a reader should use depends on whether they mean the Administration request, committee mark, or final enacted appropriation and whether they include emergency/supplemental and intra‑DHS transfers [4] [6] [3].