Republicans frontloaded ICE and Border Patrol funding for the next three years
About 6 in 10 voters said the Trump administration’s actions on immigration enforcement had “gone too far,” according to The AP Voter Poll, a survey of more than 100,000 midterm voters, and a similar share said they disapproved of how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was doing its job. About 6 in 10 said immigrants to the United States today do more to “help the country,” while less than half — about 4 in 10 — said they do more to “hurt the country.”
The findings landed days after Democrats won control of both houses of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections, with winning candidates saying they would move once sworn in to rein in President Donald Trump’s mass deportation operation and some suggesting a new vision for immigration reform while both chambers are in Democratic control. Their leverage is narrower than their majorities. Trump, who rode into power in part on a promise to curb immigration, holds veto power for two more years, and the elevation of his key immigration architect, Stephen Miller, to chief of staff on Friday suggested enforcement may not slow down any time soon.
The money, meanwhile, is already in place. Republicans expanded immigration enforcement in the summer of 2025 with $150 billion intended to expand immigration detention capacity, finish the border wall and hire thousands more deportation officers, and earlier this year they frontloaded routine funding for ICE and the Border Patrol for the next three years. With Trump able to veto any Democratic legislation, Republicans have the money and the personnel to pursue his immigration agenda regardless of Tuesday’s results.
“My fear is that enforcement will get worse,” said Andrea Flores, who was a policy adviser in the Obama and Biden administrations. “And the country will also see that Congress does not have many tools to stop the executive branch because the executive branch power on immigration has grown so vast.”
Conservatives want the outgoing Congress to move first. Many administration supporters want the lame-duck session to pass legislation solidifying the border-security gains the Trump administration says it has made: without codifying changes to asylum law and tightening requirements that employers verify workers’ immigration status, they warn, a future administration could quickly reverse the landscape Trump has shaped. NumbersUSA, an advocacy group that seeks to restrict immigration, is running a countdown on its website to the end of this Congress under a warning to “make border security permanent.” “If this Congress in the lame duck does not secure the border with lasting legislation, then this Congress will have failed to meet the moment,” said Jeremy Beck, the group’s co-president.
Democrats appear ready to use the power of congressional oversight to investigate ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. That strategy will likely resonate with voters angry about how enforcement operations were carried out in places such as Minneapolis and about ICE arrests of longtime immigrants integrated into American society. The administration ramped up enforcement during the first two years of Trump’s second term, launching major operations in multiple cities and sending arrests soaring, and DHS came under criticism for alleged corruption and misuse of funds it received to carry out the immigration agenda.
Rep. Robert Garcia, a Los Angeles-area Democrat who will take over the House Oversight Committee and a prominent critic of the immigration agenda, warned the administration to “lawyer up,” adding that investigating alleged abuses at DHS is one of his priorities. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the next Congress will “address the Trump administration’s assault on the rule of law and hold those responsible accountable.”
The investigations could reach DHS purchases of massive warehouses to hold arrested immigrants, whether ICE cut corners in hiring thousands of new deportation officers, and deaths in ICE detention facilities.
Democrats previewed that scrutiny from the minority. Garcia and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut held shadow hearings that featured relatives of people killed during immigration enforcement operations, a whistleblower describing problems with ICE training, and American citizens caught up in enforcement operations. No Republicans attended, and Democrats could not subpoena witnesses. With their new majorities, they can — opening administration actions to a level of scrutiny the party could not previously compel.
The party’s affirmative ambitions run into history. The last time Congress came close to passing comprehensive immigration reform was 2013, when a proposal cleared the Senate but died in the House, and border crossings that surged under the Biden administration dampened Democratic enthusiasm for legalization measures.
Sarah Pierce, director of social policy for Third Way, a Washington think tank, said Democrats need to show voters their own vision for immigration and border security rather than focusing only on hearings about the last two years. “They should lean into oversight, but I think that they also need to couple that with a proactive vision for what immigration should look like in the United States,” Pierce said.
At least one incoming senator is ready for that discussion. Sen.-elect James Talarico of Texas told Fox News after the election that Congress should pass comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who have lived and worked in the country illegally for years. In the House, Rep. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico pointed to Democratic gains with Latino voters and a larger incoming class of Latino lawmakers as reasons for the party not to avoid the issue. He argued Democrats should frame immigration through affordability — for example, addressing caregiving staffing shortages by creating a new visa class for workers who care for children or the elderly. “This cannot be a third-rail issue for Democrats,” Vasquez said. “We can actually reform our immigration system to bring costs down for all Americans and at the same time give people who are either here undocumented or want to come to this country an opportunity to have legal status.”
Trump said shortly after the election that he was prepared to work with Democrats on certain issues, highlighting immigration as one of them — a collaborative tone that may not bear out in practice. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin vowed on social media, “Deportations will continue.” Immigration and Latino activists called Miller’s promotion an act of defiance after voters spoke clearly at the polls and a sign the president would continue his policies. Sen. Alex Padilla of California, a key Democratic critic of the agenda, said Trump was choosing to double down with the pick — and vowed, “So will we.”
Whether Democrats and the White House can find middle ground on immigration legislation is unclear. What is set is the division of power for the next two years: Democrats hold the gavels and the subpoena power, the administration holds the enforcement machinery and the veto, and each side says it intends to use what it has.