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It’s safe to say that the Trump administration is failing on many fronts: Its economic policy has worsened inflation, its foreign policy has landed America in another seemingly endless war, and its healthcare policy is rejecting decades of research-backed vaccine guidance. In Donald Trump’s goals of tormenting the nation’s immigrants, though, the administration is clearly winning. Sure, there have been plenty of losses in court and in the battle of public opinion, but deportations for fiscal year 2026 still managed to exceed 350,000, on track to beat the Obama administration’s record. Trump also notched decisive victories at the Supreme Court over temporary protected status, legal permanent residents, and his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. On top of this, the president has successfully secured the most funding in U.S. history for the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection, a sum that will outlast his second term, to the tune of approximately $200 billion. Meanwhile, Democrats not only failed to stop this funding; they allowed it to pass with basically no congressional oversight baked in. We’re finally starting to get a sense of what Trump is spending this enormous pot of money on, and, well, it’s ugly, but it’s also terrifyingly effective.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which awarded $170 billion to DHS, ICE, and CBP, is the president’s signature policy bill. It was, among other things, intended to help fulfill this wish of Trump’s: deport 1 million immigrants within his first year in office. One year later, after ICE agents killed two American citizens in Minnesota and inflicted violence against thousands of protesters across the country, congressional Republicans decided to award the agency even more money, as Trump’s goal remained unmet. In June, they passed another $70 billion funding package for DHS through the Secure America Act. Critically, both of these spending bills were passed via reconciliation so Senate Republicans could move them forward with only 51 votes, instead of the typical 60 required for budget negotiations; the bills also featured scant congressional oversight and lacked guidelines dictating how the funds should be........

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