Trump Signs $70 Billion Immigration Funding Bill

President Trump signed a $70 billion funding bill for immigration enforcement agencies that extends through the end of his presidency. The measure contains no requirement that ICE officers wear body cameras despite broad bipartisan support for the technology in other law-enforcement settings.

Less than 25 percent of ICE’s field workforce is equipped with body cameras. Approximately 3,000 out of an estimated 13,000 ICE field agents wear them.

Democrats had proposed several oversight provisions during funding negotiations, including visible identification for agents, judicial warrants before entering private property, restrictions on racial profiling, safeguards for detainees, limits on arrests at schools, churches, hospitals and courthouses, and protections against databases tracking people engaged in First Amendment-protected activities.

Those talks collapsed before the bill passed.

According to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, 65 percent of Americans say ICE has gone too far in its enforcement efforts. Last week, officials stated during a congressional hearing that the department had used facial recognition technology on people gathered outside a New Jersey immigration detention center.

Federal officials deny maintaining a dedicated database of protesters, though documents and lawsuits have raised questions about whether immigration officials are collecting and retaining information on protesters and observers who monitor ICE operations.

Officials also floated the idea of pulling Customs and Border Protection officers from international airports in sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. A White House border official stated on “Fox & Friends” that the administration intends to send more ICE agents than have ever been seen in New York City after the governor signed legislation creating additional protections against ICE enforcement actions in the state.