ICE Unleashed: The Trump-Era Power Grab in Just 10 Months

Written by Parriva — October 21, 2025
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In the first 10 months of Donald Trump’s second presidency, which begin this Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has undergone a brutal transformation, becoming one of the most powerful federal agencies. The immigration enforcement agency has significantly increased its budget compared to 2024 and is carrying out a massive hiring spree of agents. It has also significantly expanded its partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies, opened new detention centers, and launched large-scale raids and operations in some of the country’s major cities. All this is aimed at fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise: to carry out the “largest deportation in history.”

ICE’s expansion has been made possible, in large part, by the president’s tax reform bill passed last July. Under the Republican’s so-called “big and beautiful” law, $170.7 billion was allocated for the implementation of immigration projects and laws over the next four years. ICE will receive $75 billion during that period, of which $45 billion will be used to build new immigration detention centers and nearly $30 billion to recruit more agents and implement the Trump administration’s immigration goals.

For Stephen Miller, White House immigration advisor, “the goal is a minimum of 3,000 ICE arrests per day,” a figure later denied by Justice Department officials, but which indicates the direction of the current administration’s immigration policy.

To achieve the goal of detaining more migrants, ICE currently has about 21,000 agents in all 50 states, but seeks to increase its staff by 10,000 more agents before the end of the year. As an incentive to recruit more officers, the agency is offering up to $50,000 as a sign-on bonus to new members, $60,000 in student debt forgiveness, and a $10,000 annual bonus. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the number of applications has already exceeded 150,000, and 18,000 job offers have been made.

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