As money rushed in, ICE’s rapid expansion stalled out
Today’s must-read: Immigration arrests have declined and jail overcrowding is worse despite billions in new funds, Nick Miroff reports.
 

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Social-media clips of ICE arrests “have kept up the appearance of an ever-expanding campaign,” Nick Miroff writes. But “ICE’s own data show that the agency’s buildup stalled over the summer.”

Few provisions in President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act were as thrilling to immigration hard-liners as the $45 billion it provided to supersize the ICE detention system. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had long complained that a lack of jail space constrained their ability to deport more people. The bill gave ICE enough money to nearly triple its detention capacity to more than 100,000 beds—a “once-in-a-generation opportunity,” the White House called it.

But in the three months since the bill was signed, the agency has added little to that capacity.

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