Washington: US President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new funding, including by striking more jobs – even as a backlash builds ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Trump has already poured immigration agents into major US cities, sweeping through neighborhoods and clashing with residents. While federal agents have conducted some high-profile raids on businesses this year, they have largely avoided raiding farms, factories and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status. ICE and Border Patrol will get $170 billion in additional funds through September 2029 — a big boost in funding over their existing annual budgets of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a massive 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 down people without legal status. The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of a political backlash ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Miami, one of the cities most affected 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 partly a response to the president. Other local elections and polls have indicated growing concern among voters wary of aggressive immigration tactics. “People are starting to see this not as an immigration issue as much as it is a violation of rights, a violation of due process and the militarization of neighborhoods beyond the constitution,” said Mike Madrid, a moderate Republican political strategist. “There’s no doubt that’s a problem for the president and Republicans.” Trump’s overall approval rating on immigration policy has fallen from 50% in March, before he launched crackdowns in several major US cities, to 41% in mid-December, on what has been his strongest issue. Growing public unrest has focused on masked federal agents using aggressive tactics such as deploying tear gas in neighborhoods and detaining US citizens. ‘Number will explode’ In addition to expanding enforcement actions, Trump has stripped hundreds of thousands of Haitian, Venezuelan and Afghan immigrants of temporary legal status, expanding the pool of people who can be deported, as the president vows to remove 1 million immigrants each year – a goal he will almost certainly miss this year. So far, about 622,000 immigrants have been deported since Trump took office in January. White House border czar Tom Homan told Reuters Trump had kept his promise of a historic deportation operation and the removal of criminals while shutting down illegal immigration across the US-Mexico border. Homan said the number of arrests will increase sharply as ICE hires more officers and expands detention capacity with the new funding. “I think next year you’re going to see the numbers explode a lot,” Homan said. Homan said the plans “absolutely” include more enforcement actions at workplaces. Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way, said American businesses have been reluctant to push back on Trump’s immigration crackdown in recent years, but may be asked to speak out if the focus turns to employers. Pierce said it will be interesting to see “whether businesses end up standing up to this administration or not.” Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House and promised record levels of deportations, saying they were 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 looking for possible immigration violators, sparking protests and lawsuits over racial profiling and violent tactics. Some businesses closed to avoid raids or because of a lack of customers. Parents vulnerable to arrest kept their children at school or let neighbors walk them. Some American citizens began to carry passports. Despite the focus on criminals in his public statements, government data shows that the Trump administration has arrested more people who have not been charged with any crimes than their alleged immigration violations than previous administrations. About 41% of the roughly 54,000 people arrested and detained by ICE as of late November had no criminal record other than a suspected immigration violation, agency figures show. In the first few weeks in January, before Trump took office, just 6% of those arrested and detained by ICE were not facing charges for other crimes or had previously been convicted. The Trump administration has also targeted legal immigrants. Agents arrested spouses of US citizens during their green card interviews, pulled people from certain countries out of their naturalization ceremonies moments before they would become citizens, and revoked thousands of student visas. Plans to target employers The administration’s planned focus on workplaces in the coming year could trigger many more arrests and hurt the US economy and Republican business owners. Replacing immigrants arrested in workplace raids could lead to higher labor costs, undermining Trump’s fight against inflation, which analysts expect to be a major issue in the closely contested November elections that determine control of Congress. Administration officials earlier this year exempted such companies from enforcement on Trump’s orders, then quickly reversed, Reuters reported at the time. Some immigration hardliners have called for more workplace enforcement. “Ultimately, you’re going to have to go to these employers,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration. “When that starts to happen, the employers will start cleaning up their acts on their own.” Disclaimer: This story was published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text.
