US President Donald Trump signed the Secure America Act into law on June 10, including roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement. The legislation funds several agencies through September 2029, including approximately $38 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and $26 billion for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Congressional approval for this legislation comes after months of controversy in Congress over funding for ICE and CBP, and without adopting essential oversight and accountability reforms.
Over the past year and a half, Human Rights Watch has documented abuses by federal immigration authorities. During the US government’s campaign of raids and detentions throughout the summer of 2025 in Los Angeles, Human Rights Watch found that ICE and CBP agents relied on tactics including detaining people based on their perceived race, ethnicity, or national origin, and using excessive force. These abuses have sowed terror in immigrant communities. In Illinois, Human Rights Watch documented federal agents using excessive force against peaceful protestors, legal observers, volunteer street medics, and journalists outside an ICE detention facility.
Human Rights Watch also documented inhumane immigration detention conditions in Florida in 2025 including overcrowding, degrading treatment and denial of medical care, conditions that may have been linked to two deaths. Recently, people detained at the Delaney Hall facility launched a hunger strike over medical neglect, poor sanitation, spoiled food, bond denials, and alleged coercion to sign deportation-related documents.
Lawmakers and activists have proposed a range of reforms to DHS operations including requiring judicial warrants for entry onto private property, stronger measures to ban racial profiling, restricting masked and unidentified agents, protecting sensitive locations, and strengthening accountability for immigration abuses. By failing to pass any reforms at all, Congress missed a pivotal opportunity to hold officials accountable and improve oversight to prevent future abuses. This risks allowing patterns of violence, medical neglect, inhumane detention, and impunity to continue.
The funding bill’s passage should not be the end of the debate. Congress should use its oversight authority to investigate patterns of abuse in immigration enforcement and detention and introduce reforms and accountability to prevent further abuses. Congress should also press the administration to curb abusive enforcement practices, increase transparency around enforcement operations, improve medical care and conditions in custody, and pursue alternatives to detention.
