According to the National Immigration Law Center, …”last summer’s reconciliation bill already gave the Trump administration $170 billion to spend on their cruel mass detention and deportation schemes — and that’s just until 2029. To put that in perspective: In order to spend this much money within the timeframe, it’s like spending $116.4 million every single day.
There is a direct line from how our government chooses to spend our tax dollars to our shared quality of life. If members of Congress wanted to prioritize health care, food security, and livable wages, they could. The issue isn’t money; it’s political will.
In fact, DHS’s $170 billion could fund:
- Medicaid coverage for six million children and four million adults for four years
- SNAP benefits for 18.7 million people for four years
- Nearly 400,000 livable-wage jobs for four years — enough to support families with a single parent and two kids”
On June 8, 2026, Congress allocated another $70 billion to DHS. This would fund:
- Medicaid coverage for 8.5 million children and four million adults for four years
- SNAP benefits for 26.4 million people for four years
- Nearly 565,000 livable-wage jobs for four years — enough to support families with a single parent and two kids
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that:
- The 2025 reconciliation law increased projected deficits by about $4.7 trillion over ten years (including economic and debt-service effects).
- Administrative immigration actions added roughly $0.5 trillion more to projected deficits over the same period.
Now consider this: CATO, a nonpartisan and independent public policy research organization published an analysis that the Trump administration’s actions have decreased the income immigrants bring to the US Treasury at the same time that enforcement actions have increased the deficit.