Trump to expand immigration enforcement in 2026 amid growing backlash

U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new funding, including by raiding more workplaces – even as backlash builds ahead of next year's midterm elections. 

Trump has already surged immigration agents into major U.S. cities, where they swept through neighborhoods and clashed with residents. While federal agents conducted several high-profile raids on businesses in 2025, they largely avoided raiding farms, factories and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

Under a sweeping spending bill passed by the Republican-controlled Congress in July, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Border Patrol will receive an extra $170 billion in funding through September 2029. The funding infusion marks a substantial increase compared with their combined annual budget of roughly $19 billion.

Administration officials said the additional funds will be used to recruit thousands more agents, establish new detention facilities, step up efforts to identify and apprehend undocumented immigrants in local jails and partner with private companies to track down individuals without legal status.

The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of next year's midterm elections. Trump's overall approval rating on immigration policy fell from 50 percent in March – before he launched crackdowns in several major U.S. cities – to 41 percent in mid-December. 

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 could be deported as the president promises to remove 1 million immigrants each year – a goal he almost certainly will miss this year. So far, some 622,000 immigrants have been deported since Trump took office in January. 

The Trump administration has taken aim at legal immigrants as well. Agents have arrested spouses of U.S. citizens at their green card interviews, pulled people from certain countries out of their naturalization ceremonies, moments before they were to become citizens, and revoked thousands of student visas. 

The administration's planned focus on job sites in the coming year could generate many more arrests. Replacing immigrants arrested during 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 watched November elections, determining control of Congress.

(With input from Reuters)