Think Immigration Enforcement Is About to Slow Down? Think Again
By James Larsen, Managing Attorney
Over the last year, I've had conversations with clients, attorneys, and community members who assume that eventually the immigration enforcement push will run out of steam.
The opposite appears to be happening.
This week, Congress approved approximately $70 billion in additional funding for immigration enforcement agencies through the remainder of President Trump's term. The funding includes billions for ICE, Border Patrol, and related enforcement activities, providing a steady stream of resources for years rather than requiring annual appropriations battles.
If you've been paying attention to developments in immigration law over the past year, this funding bill isn't the beginning of a trend.
It's the continuation of one.
We've Already Seen the Policy Shifts
Before this funding bill passed, we were already seeing dramatic changes in how immigration laws were being interpreted and enforced.
We've seen the government adopt an increasingly expansive interpretation of who qualifies as an "arriving alien."
We've seen policies favoring detention for broad categories of individuals who entered without visas.
We've seen asylum cases pretermitted without reaching the merits.
We've seen immigration judges given greater authority to dismiss or dispose of cases more quickly.
We've seen expanded enforcement actions and reports of warrantless operations that would have been difficult to imagine only a few years ago.
Whether one agrees with these policies or not, the direction of travel has been clear.
The federal government is not scaling back immigration enforcement.
It is scaling up.
More Money Means More Enforcement
The practical reality is simple.
When Congress gives an agency billions of additional dollars, that agency does not become smaller.
It becomes larger.
The new legislation provides approximately $38 billion for ICE and another $26 billion for Border Patrol operations. The stated goal is to support deportation efforts for the remainder of the administration.
That funding translates into personnel, transportation, detention capacity, technology, investigations, and operational resources.
It also means additional detention facilities.
Anyone who believes the current detention system is operating at peak capacity should expect that capacity to increase.
More Judges—But Not Necessarily More Consistency
The administration has also continued efforts to reshape the immigration court system.
We've seen immigration judges hired.
We've also seen judges viewed as insufficiently aligned with administration priorities removed or replaced.
The reality is that outcomes in immigration court already vary dramatically depending on where a case is heard.
Consider the contrast between some courts in places like San Francisco and courts in places like San Antonio.
Historically, certain judges in San Francisco had granted asylum at exceptionally high rates, while some judges in Texas have approved only a small fraction of asylum cases.
Those disparities have existed for years.
Now the government appears increasingly focused on ensuring that newly hired judges share a more restrictive view of immigration relief. In fact, they shut down the San Francisco court for "going rogue."
Whether that produces greater consistency or simply lower grant rates remains to be seen.
The Push for Efficiency
This past week we also saw reports of mass hearing procedures being utilized in San Antonio and other locations.
From the government's perspective, this is about efficiency.
The immigration court backlog remains enormous.
The administration wants cases processed faster.
The challenge, of course, is that efficiency and due process do not always move in the same direction.
Every immigration case represents a human being, a family, a business, or a future.
Moving cases faster may reduce statistics on a spreadsheet.
Whether it improves justice is a different question.
What Comes Next?
The most important takeaway from all of this is that immigration enforcement is no longer operating under temporary measures or short-term funding mechanisms.
Congress has now provided billions of dollars in additional resources designed to support enforcement efforts for years.
For individuals with pending cases, undocumented family members, prior removal orders, asylum applications, criminal issues, or unresolved immigration concerns, waiting for things to become easier may not be a strategy.
The government is hiring.
The government is funding.
The government is expanding detention capacity.
The government is moving cases.
Whether one supports these policies or opposes them, the trend is difficult to ignore.
The immigration system of 2026 is not becoming less aggressive.
It's becoming more aggressive, more funded, and more institutionalized.
And all indications suggest that this is only the beginning.
Immigration law changes rapidly. This article is for informational purposes only, reflects the law as of its publication date, and may be superseded by later changes in the law, regulations or agency policy. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.La ley de inmigración cambia rápidamente. Este artículo es solo para fines informativos, refleja la ley a la fecha de su publicación y puede quedar superado por cambios posteriores en la ley, las regulaciones o las políticas de las agencias. No es asesoría legal, y leerlo no crea una relación abogado-cliente.