Trump plans to extend immigration crackdown into 2026 despite strong backlash

By Ted Hayson, Christina Cook and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new funding, including raids on more workplaces, even as he builds a response ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Trump has already ramped up immigration agents in major US cities, where they have found neighbors and clashed with residents. While federal agents have conducted some high-profile raids on businesses this year, they have largely avoided raids on farms, factories and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

ICE and the Border Patrol will receive $170 billion in additional funding through September 2029 — a huge increase in funding over their existing annual budget of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a major spending package in July.

Administration officials say they plan to hire thousands more agents, open new detention centers, house more immigrants in local jails and partner with outside companies to track people without legal status.

The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

Miami, one of the cities hardest hit by Trump’s crackdown because of its large immigrant population, last week elected its first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades in what the mayor-elect said was, in part, a response to the president. Other local elections and polls have suggested growing concern among voters wary of aggressive immigration tactics.

“People are starting to see this as an immigration question as much as it is a violation of rights, a violation of due process and constitutionally militarizing neighborhoods,” said Mike Madrid, a moderate Republican political strategist. “There’s no question that’s a problem for the president and the Republicans.”

Trump’s overall approval rating on immigration policy fell from 50% in March, before he began cracking down on several major US cities, to 41% in mid-December, his strongest issue.

Growing public unease has focused on masked federal agents using aggressive tactics such as deploying tear gas in residential neighborhoods and detaining US citizens.

‘The numbers will explode’

In addition to expanding enforcement actions, Trump has stripped temporary legal status of thousands of Haitian, Venezuelan and Afghan immigrants, widening the pool of people who could be deported after the president pledged to remove one million immigrants each year — a goal he will almost certainly miss this year. About 622,000 immigrants have been deported since Trump took office in January.

White House border czar Tom Homan told Reuters that Trump had made good on his promise to crack down on illegal immigration along the US-Mexico border with a historic deportation campaign and remove criminals. Homan said the number of arrests will increase sharply as ICE hires more officers and expands detention capacity with new funding.

“I think you’re going to see the numbers explode massively next year,” Homan said.

Homan said the plans “absolutely” include more enforcement actions at workplaces.

Sarah Pearce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way, said US businesses have been reluctant to push back against Trump’s immigration crackdown over the past year but could be prompted to speak up if the focus turns to employers.

Pierce said it will be interesting to see “whether businesses ultimately stand up to this administration.”

Republican Trump recaptured the White House promising record levels of deportations, saying it was necessary after years of high levels of illegal immigration under his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden. He launched a campaign that sent federal agents into American cities in search of potential immigrant criminals, protesting and prosecuting racial profiling and violent tactics.

Some businesses close to avoid raids or due to lack of customers. Parents at risk of arrest have kept their children home from school or had neighbors walk them. Some American citizens began to carry passports.

Despite the focus on criminals in its public statements, government statistics show that the Trump administration is arresting more people than previous administrations who have not been charged with any crime beyond their alleged immigration violations.

About 41% of the nearly 54,000 people arrested by ICE and detained as of late November had no criminal record other than a suspected immigration violation, agency data show. In the first few weeks in January, before Trump took office, only 6% of those arrested and detained by ICE were not facing charges for other crimes or had prior convictions.

The Trump administration has also targeted legal immigrants. Agents arrested spouses of U.S. citizens at their green card interviews, kicked people from some countries out of their naturalization ceremonies, shortly before they became citizens, and revoked thousands of student visas.

Schemes targeting employers

The administration’s planned focus on job sites in the coming year could generate many more arrests and hurt the U.S. economy and Republican-leaning business owners.

Replacing immigrants arrested in workplace raids could lead to higher labor costs, undermining Trump’s fight against inflation, which analysts expect will be a key issue determining control of Congress in closely watched November elections.

Administration officials earlier this year exempted such businesses from enforcement in Trump’s order, then quickly reversed it, Reuters reported at the time.

Some immigration hardliners have called for more workplace enforcement.

“Ultimately you’re going to have to go after these employers,” said Jessica Vaughn, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration. “When this starts happening employers start cleaning up their own acts.”

(Reporting by Ted Hesson and Jeff Mason in Washington, Christina Cook in San Francisco; Editing by Craig Timberg and Aurora Ellis)