Congress

Trump got $170 billion for immigration. Now he has to enact it.

Published

12 months ago

July 5, 2025

President Donald Trump’s megabill with $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement squeaked through Congress after days of promises, arm twisting and implicit threats to wavering members.

Now — the clock is ticking to spend the money.

The Trump administration has three-and-a-half years to drastically expand the nation’s border enforcement and deportation infrastructure, a massive logistical challenge for which there is no easy comparison. It must hire and train thousands of new immigration officials, secure contracts to ramp up detention capacity and expand the immigration court system. All of that is in pursuit of an ambitious White House target: 1 million annual deportations.

The megabill, which the president signed into law Friday, offers an unprecedented infusion of cash into the country’s immigration enforcement apparatus, but even Trump border czar Tom Homan acknowledges the administration has a great deal of work ahead, especially when it comes to fulfilling Trump’s pledge to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“Look, this isn’t easy. Ten thousand ICE officers? Never happened before,” Homan told Blue Light News on Friday. “But I’ll say this: It’s about time … with more money, we can do more.”

Homan is confident the money will be spent by the end of Trump’s term, but couldn’t predict how long it will take for the administration to hit 1 million annual removals. He is already working with ICE to assess how many new agents the agency can hire over the next three months, and how quickly the administration can bring on new detention beds.

The Trump administration’s ability to expeditiously spend the billions it demanded is likely to prove decisive in its effort to increase deportations, a key campaign pledge and a line the administration will likely want to tout ahead of the midterms.

With the new money, the Trump administration will focus on constructing more of the border wall and barriers, while beefing up technology that will allow agents to communicate with each other in cellular and radio dead zones, Homan said.

The administration will also move quickly to grow detention capacity, working with contractors to bring vacant prisons and facilities back online and build up soft-sided facilities like Florida did with “Alligator Alcatraz.”

ICE has been “on a constant chase, trying to move flights out as quickly as possible just to make room for the arrests they’re making — they’re averaging 1,500 to 2,000 a day,” Homan said. “Teams are coming home before the end of a shift because of lack of beds — not a lot, but it’s happened a few times. So the beds are going to get us more capability for detention. That’s the big thing.”

The administration has also been fielding contractor pitches on technology and other solutions to improve its targeting efforts — finding undocumented immigrants inside the country. Homan said the administration will also work with contractors to ramp up transportation and removal flights, while also potentially using them to fill jobs that don’t require a badge or a gun.

John Sandweg, acting ICE director from 2013 to 2014, highlighted the difficulty of hiring that many people that fast for complicated jobs. Significantly expanding ICE’s footprint includes recruiting, vetting, onboarding and training thousands of new officers and will require building out the agency’s human resources department, training centers, office space and resources — from vehicles to weapons.

“That is way harder than it sounds,” Sandweg said. “And this is a second term — they have three and a half years left.”

Past presidents, including Joe Biden, have secured billions from Congress, only to learn that “shovel ready” projects are hard to come by. The Biden administration rushed to get funds out the door before Trump took office, and the current administration has tried to freeze hundreds of billions of dollars in grants — only to be stymied by the courts.

Sandweg estimated deploying 10,000 new officers would take at least three years, and if the administration wants to get this done before Trump’s term ends, “you’re going to have to really push it to the limits in order to get them operational in this administration.”

That has him concerned that vetting standards could be lowered for speed, he said. The rapid build-up of Customs and Border Patrol under former President George W. Bush raised questions about that administration’s hiring standards at the time, which resulted in widespread misconduct at the agency that carried into the Obama administration.

And as illegal border crossings decline, ICE must look within the country to reach its arrest quota — a goal of 3,000 daily apprehensions in recent weeks. But an increase in arrests in the months ahead doesn’t automatically result in more deportations, as it will take time for the administration to build out a “logistical pipeline all over the country,” said Ken Cuccinelli, who served as deputy secretary of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term.

“It’s a whole lot of little contracts with state and local officials. It’s building more facilities. It’s reopening the ones they already have. And all you need is one choke point in the logistics — every convoy is as fast as the slowest ship,” Cuccinelli said. “You’ve got to have the planes, the vehicles, the manpower, the security, in all the right places.”

The domestic policy bill also includes over $1 billion for the immigration court system to hire more judges and staff, but it’s unclear how quickly the administration can build out the courts, and whether it can move at a rate that can keep up with an increased pace of ICE arrests — or if the effort will ultimately result in longer detention time.

The Trump administration’s efforts to work around the immigration courts have been met with legal challenges. And the case backlog is substantial: roughly 700 immigration judges are coping with a 3.5 million case pile-up.

The funding for immigration judges is “important as well, because the system is backlogged,” said Michael Hough, director of federal relations at NumbersUSA, a group that works to reduce both legal and illegal immigration. “Just because you detain these people, especially people who have been here for a while, they need hearings — you’ve got to get them in front of an immigration judge.”

While the White House celebrates the bill’s passage, political pressure is already growing for congressional Republicans to enact new policy. Immigration hawks say the money is crucial, but the party also has to look to legislation that will make permanent changes to the immigration system — such as reviving talks around border security and asylum law from the party’s legislation from last year, known as H.R.2.

“There are other legislative changes that Republicans campaigned on, and that we’re going to continue to be looking to them to move things forward and not just sit on their hands now that they’ve passed the Big Beautiful Bill Act,” said a person close to the Trump administration, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “No, this is a budget reconciliation bill … it’s infused a ton of money into this effort, but there’s still some policy changes that the administration has talked about and wants to pursue.”

Congress

Bill Gates denied association with Epstein’s crimes in closed-door Hill interview

Published

1 hour ago

June 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Tech mogul Bill Gates told the House Oversight Committee he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein’s prior sex crime conviction but that he did not know Epstein was continuing to engage in misconduct at the time of their acquaintance, according to a transcript of his testimony.

In his transcribed interview with the panel earlier this month as part of its ongoing Epstein investigation, Gates recounted details of his dealings with Epstein over the years — which extended from 2011, when he was first introduced to Epstein, to 2014, when he realized Epstein would not make good on his promise to steer donors towards Gates’ philanthropic work.

“I was aware that he had a criminal conviction,” Gates said, according to the transcript. “I knew that it was of a sexual nature, but, no, I don’t think I … dug into the specifics, although I probably should have.”

Gates’ decision to shrug off the conviction from 2008 underscored the extent to which many of those who chose to associate with the disgraced financier opted to ignore potential warning signs of impropriety. It was not until more than a decade after his first brush with law enforcement that Epstein was arrested on federal sex crimes charges; he died by suicide in jail in 2019 while his case was pending.

Gates’ relationship with Epstein has drawn new scrutiny since materials released by the Justice Department revealed new details about their relationship. In one draft correspondence contained in the so-called Epstein files, Epstein appears to have written and sent to himself a letter to Gates, where he alleged that Gates asked Epstein to “delete the emails regarding [his] std” and give him antibiotics to “surreptitiously give to Melinda [French Gates].”

Gates has denied that allegation and, during his interview with the Oversight Committee, Gates questioned whether Epstein was attempting to blackmail him.

“Now that I see the January release of documents, it appears that in many cases he, at least in emails to himself, was sort of rehearsing how either he or he coaching someone else might choose to blackmail me, but none of those messages were ever sent to me,” Gates said. “You know, I never paid Jeffrey Epstein anything.”

He also said that Epstein “certainly wasn’t a friend,” and insisted he never engaged in sexual conduct or received massages from individuals introduced to him by Epstein. And despite knowledge of his 2008 conviction, Gates said he was unaware at the time of their relationship that Epstein was a registered sex offender. He also said he never visited Epstein’s island.

The Oversight Committee also on Tuesday released a transcript of its June interview with Lesley Groff, one of Epstein’s former assistants who was among those named as a potential co-conspirator as part of Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement in 2007. She was never charged with any wrongdoing and, according to the transcript, recalled that law enforcement’s decision came as a surprise.

“I am not a conspirator, and I never would have agreed to this language,” she said, according to the transcript. “Their unilateral decision to label me as a potential conspirator remains my scarlet letter.”

Like others who have come before the panel, Groff claimed she was unaware of his crimes during the time of her employment and that Epstein, following his 2008 conviction, said that he was “set up.” Groff said she believed him, so she continued to work for him.

“I also saw the same VIPs continue to surround Epstein after his conviction,” she explained as a rationale for maintaining her own ties.

For instance, Groff told the Oversight Committee she “would connect phone calls” between President Donald Trump and Epstein multiple times a year.

Trump has not been charged with any wrongdoing tied to Epstein, but his relationship with the financier has raised eyebrows while fueling speculation that the administration has been working to cover up its connections — including by pushing back against making the Epstein files public last year and then slow-walking their release.

The Justice Department has defended its handling of the files’ release, and Trump has maintained he broke off his relationship with Epstein years before his death.

Congress

Senate votes to halt Iran war despite Trump’s push for peace deal

Published

3 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The Senate on Tuesday voted to cut off the U.S. military campaign against Iran, handing a fresh loss to President Donald Trump despite his attempts to convince lawmakers and the public that a deal to end the war is at hand.

Four Republicans broke ranks to help approve a resolution to block further military action unless it is green-lighted by Congress.

The war powers measure is largely symbolic — the resolution cleared Tuesday doesn’t go to the president to sign or veto. But the bipartisan 50-48 vote is a damaging milestone for the Trump administration: Both the Senate and House have now weighed in against the Middle East conflict that’s stretched on for more than 100 days. The same measure passed the House in early June after months of close calls.

Congress

Housing bill threatened in GOP elections-bill spat

Published

4 hours ago

June 23, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The long-anticipated bipartisan housing bill is under threat from a Florida Republican who threatened to “shut the floor down” if House GOP leaders move forward with passing it Tuesday.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna said Republicans instead need to prioritize passage of the SAVE America Act, the GOP elections bill that has been stuck in the Senate for months. Speaker Mike Johnson has scheduled a Tuesday evening vote on the housing bill in hopes of sending it to President Donald Trump for a planned Wednesday signing at the White House.

Luna posted her threat on social media Tuesday afternoon and later specified in an interview that she would oppose procedural measures teeing up GOP-backed legislation going forward if party leaders didn’t abandon their plans to hold the housing bill vote via special fast-track procedures that would effectively sideline Republican hard-liners.

Luna cannot single-handedly block those procedural votes, but she said there is “a group” of lawmakers who would join her. She separately called on Trump to veto the housing bill in a bid to force the SAVE America Act to be added to it.

Johnson plans for now to proceed with the Tuesday evening vote on the housing bill, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. If Luna and her unnamed allies follow through with their threats, they could derail a pair of appropriations bills set for House consideration this week and potentially freeze the floor indefinitely given the GOP’s razor-thin majority.

“I have been telling them,” Luna said of her complaints to GOP leaders.