Trump writes blank check to ICE — where’s the oversight? 

For months, Americans have watched one immigration headline after another flash across their screens. Deportations. Raids. U.S. citizens killed. Protests. Court battles. And now, President Trump has signed a massive $70 billion funding bill for immigration enforcement agencies that’ll last through the end of his presidency.  

The question isn’t whether immigration laws should be enforced. Every country has laws, and every administration has a responsibility to uphold them. The question for me is, what are the guardrails?  

Critics are calling this legislation a blank check, and that’s because it has little to no parameters on how the money will be spent.  

Take something both Republicans and Democrats have broadly supported: body cameras for ICE officers. In an era where police departments across the country have embraced body-worn cameras as a tool for transparency, accountability and public trust, less than 25 percent of ICE’s field workforce is currently equipped with body cameras. That means only about 3,000 out of an estimated 13,000 ICE field agents wear body cameras today.  

Yet despite billions in new funding, there’s no requirement in this legislation that ICE officers wear them. Why not? If lawmakers agree body cameras protect officers and civilians alike, why wasn’t that one of the conditions attached to this unprecedented funding package?  

And Americans are clearly asking for more oversight. According to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, 65 percent of Americans say ICE has gone too far in its enforcement........

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