LWVUS sent a memo to the Senate Judiciary Committee urging them to reject additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
May 13, 2026
To: Members of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary
From: Celina Stewart, CEO, League of Women Voters of the United States
Re: Reject Additional Funding for ICE and CBP
The League of Women Voters of the United States (the "League") remains steadfast in our demand that Congress not allocate any new funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a budget reconciliation bill.
In the wake of the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) granting more than $170 billion, an unprecedented amount of funding, to expand immigration and border enforcement activities to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, the request for the allocation of additional taxpayer money is grossly fiscally irresponsible. With this previous funding, communities across the country are still reeling from the harm done by federal immigration enforcement agents who've surveilled, detained, arrested, disappeared, injured, and killed civilians. Agents have denied people their constitutional rights by denying them due process, searching vehicles and homes without consent or the appropriate warrants, and attacking and arresting people peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights.
As the Cato Institute highlights, the OBBB earmarked approximately $75 billion for ICE and $65 billion for CBP, which is seven and four times the typical annual budget of the agencies, respectively. Further, as 21 senators wrote to the Congressional Budget Office, there is no comprehensive public accounting of how funds are being obligated or spent. This is antithetical to the principles of government transparency and accountability, and Congress' constitutional responsibility of executive branch oversight.
Individuals and families across the country are struggling to meet their basic needs because of last year's reconciliation bill. Grocery, gas, and health care costs have skyrocketed, many because of last year's reconciliation bill, which made devastating and sometimes fatal cuts to health care, nutrition, and other basic needs programs, while federal immigration enforcement efforts were funded at historically unparalleled levels. Now, Congress is considering a more than $70 billion package to scale up the wildly unpopular ICE and CBP activities for the next three years.
We have a long way ahead to imposing meaningful oversight and accountability on federal immigration enforcement agencies, protecting the civil rights and safety of civilians, ensuring accountability to individuals and communities harmed, and restoring the American people's faith in the US government. However, today, the League urges you to prioritize the needs of the American people by rejecting additional funding for ICE and CBP.