Acacia Center for Justice, National Center for Youth Law, National Immigrant Justice Center, and Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights Urge Congress to Vote No on $71 Billion in New Funds for ICE and Border Patrol.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 18, 2026
CONTACT: press@acaciajustice.org
WASHINGTON —In a nation grappling with a cost-of-living crisis and where working families are forced to make impossible choices between food on the table and gas in the tank, Congress is forcing a vote on even more taxpayer dollars for deportation and detention. Not yet one year ago, Congress voted to give the Trump administration a record $170 billion through a budget reconciliation effort laden with harmful provisions. This prior funding empowered ICE and Border Patrol to ramp up their attacks on children, separate families, shoot and kill U.S. citizens and immigrants, expand detention, and fast-track deportation without due process, making communities less safe across the country.
The proposed legislation would allocate approximately $71 billion in new funds for ICE and Border Patrol on top of last year’s staggeringly high allocations to continue carrying out deportation operations that harm children and families.
We urge Members of Congress to vote NO on the reconciliation legislation and NO to all amendments to the legislation that will endanger children and immigrant communities. We are concerned that the bill may be amended to include abusive practices, erase statutory protections and prolong children’s detention – exacerbating the current landscape of harm and the lifelong psychological consequences it causes.
Since the last reconciliation package was signed into law, immigrant children’s rights have come under constant threat, despite their apparent vulnerabilities.
More money for ICE and CBP means more money for:
- Family detention, where thousands of children, like 5-year-old Liam Ramos, have been jailed in dangerous and inhumane conditions over the past year.
- Railroading children through courtrooms, offering little to no time to pursue protection or legal assistance with some children forced to plead their cases alone.
- Threatening and coercing children, with prolonged detention and a pay-off to self-deport without vital protections or assurances of safety from harm upon return.
- Unlawful deportation, as the government attempted to deport unaccompanied Guatemalan children last Labor Day weekend, putting them on planes in the middle of the night despite their pending proceedings and expressed fears of return.
- Saddling children seeking protection with debt, charging exorbitant fees upwards of $5,250, rendering them more vulnerable to exploitation if released from government custody.
- Using children as bait to detain and deport families, as ICE falsely promises families the opportunity to reunify with their children only to arrest and deport loved ones in their homes and at routine appointments.
Taken together, these practices capture the administration’s intent to deport children rather than protect them. An administration that strips kids of due process, uses them as bait to prop up a deportation agenda, and contravenes trafficking protections does not care about children.
In the absence of accountability measures and protective guardrails, allocating more money to ICE and CBP’s bloated budgets is not only economically irresponsible, but poses significant risks for exceptionally vulnerable children. Congress must firmly oppose any attempts to further weaken protections for children with unchecked enforcement and detention.
Acacia Center for Justice expands meaningful access to justice and freedom for immigrants at risk of detention or deportation in partnership with an accountable and independent national network of immigrant legal service providers and community partners. Acacia Center for Justice’s reach and impact are unparalleled. The national nonprofit currently operates publicly funded programs and responsive collaborations through a network of over 130 legal service providers nationwide.
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