ICE budget surge signals massive deportation campaign under Trump

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the United States, with its annual budget skyrocketing to $85 billion.

The massive funding surge follows the enactment of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" in July 2025 under the Trump administration. The agency's budget now exceeds that of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined.

Under the new legislation, ICE received an additional $75 billion to be spent over a four-year period, supplementing its base budget of approximately $10 billion.

The Trump administration has tasked the agency with a goal of deporting 1 million people per year. To support this mandate, the act allocates $45 billion to expand the immigrant detention system, aiming for a daily capacity of 100,000 people.

To meet these operational targets, ICE doubled its workforce from 10,000 to 22,000 employees during 2025 alone. The agency has utilized aggressive recruitment incentives to attract new personnel, including signing bonuses as high as $50,000.

However, the rapid expansion comes amid rising concerns over safety. The number of deaths recorded in ICE detention facilities has reached its highest level in decades.

The Trump administration’s move to transform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into the nation’s most well-capitalized law enforcement agency marks a definitive pivot in federal policy. By proposing a budget that eclipses that of the entire Department of Justice, the administration is signaling that aggressive enforcement has officially supplanted asylum adjudication and social integration as the primary pillar of U.S. migration strategy.

The stated goal of executing one million removals annually represents a logistical undertaking without modern precedent, necessitating broad-spectrum sweeps that extend far beyond high-priority targets. The tactical shift toward masked agents and random stops indicates a move toward a "deterrence-by-uncertainty" model, designed to create a climate of instability that affects the broader immigrant population, regardless of individual criminal history.

For the Vietnamese-American community, this surge in enforcement capacity introduces immediate legal vulnerabilities. A significant number of Vietnamese nationals currently reside in the U.S. under final orders of removal, many stemming from administrative or criminal infractions dating back decades. Historically, these deportations were stalled by Hanoi’s reluctance to accept repatriates. However, a vastly empowered ICE, backed by intensified political pressure, suggests the White house will likely exert significant diplomatic leverage to force Vietnam to expedite repatriation procedures. This shift places long-term residents in a state of unprecedented legal precariousness, as the administration prepares to turn its massive fiscal resources into operational results.

New ICE enforcement policies are sparking widespread concern across the Vietnamese-American small business community, particularly within the nail salon industry and phở restaurants. The heightened risk of sudden workplace raids threatens to trigger immediate labor losses and disrupt daily operations. Business owners also face mounting pressure to ensure strict I-9 compliance. This climate of fear is forcing many workers into hiding, creating staffing shortages and driving up overhead costs for businesses that already operate on razor-thin margins.