- ICE says it arrested nearly 457,000 aliens since January 20 under President Trump.
- The agency reported 2,400 human smuggling operations dismantled and nearly 1,500 child victims rescued.
- ICE requested $5.4 billion for enforcement in its FY 2027 budget, despite $75 billion in reconciliation funding.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement laid out its fiscal year 2027 budget request by pairing a new funding push with a sharp increase in enforcement figures under President Trump, saying the agency has arrested nearly 457,000 aliens since January 20.
Among those arrested, 281,000 had criminal histories, according to the ICE FY 2027 budget overview. The document also said the agency dismantled more than 2,400 human smuggling operations, resulting in 3,100 convictions, and rescued nearly 1,500 child victims from ongoing sexual abuse.
ICE asked for $5.4 billion for enforcement and removal operations in the FY 2027 request. It also sought $2.6 billion for Homeland Security Investigations, $1.6 billion for mission support staff, and $8.7 million for workload and administrative needs.
The request arrived with a second message: earlier reconciliation money, while large, does not replace the annual appropriations process. ICE leadership said the yearly budget remains necessary to sustain base operations and address emerging challenges that reconciliation funding does not authorize.
That reconciliation package provided $168.96 billion for six Department of Homeland Security components and $22.06 billion for DHS activities. ICE received $75 billion through the Working Family Tax Cut Act reconciliation funding.
USCIS, another DHS agency that depends heavily on fees, posted strong revenue in the same budget picture. In fiscal year 2025, USCIS collected $7.5 billion in fee revenue, exceeding forecasts, with carryover balances well above targeted levels.
ICE Director Todd Lyons told Congress the agency still feels the effects of the ongoing partial government shutdown, even with the added reconciliation support. His testimony placed that strain alongside the agency’s bid for fresh operating money in FY 2027.
The enforcement figures gave the budget document its clearest political and operational frame. ICE tied its request to arrests, criminal-history totals, anti-smuggling cases and child-rescue claims recorded since Trump returned to office on January 20.
Nearly 457,000 arrests in that period marked the broadest statistic in the presentation. The count of 281,000 people with criminal histories narrowed that figure to the portion ICE highlighted as a public-safety measure.
Human smuggling enforcement formed another centerpiece. ICE said it had dismantled more than 2,400 operations and secured 3,100 convictions, putting investigative results at the center of its case for continued funding.
The agency also pointed to the recovery of nearly 1,500 child victims from ongoing sexual abuse. That figure appeared alongside the smuggling and conviction totals rather than as a separate program line, underscoring how ICE grouped criminal enforcement outcomes into one budget argument.
The largest single request in the FY 2027 proposal, $5.4 billion for enforcement and removal operations, matched the emphasis on arrests and removals. Homeland Security Investigations, with a request for $2.6 billion, was described as necessary to continue critical investigations.
Mission support accounted for another $1.6 billion. ICE described that money as support for staff who maintain infrastructure and provide workforce support, a less visible function than arrests and investigations but one the agency presented as essential to daily operations.
A far smaller amount, $8.7 million, was set aside in the request for workload and administrative needs. Even in a budget measured in billions, ICE included that line item as part of the operating case it put before Congress.
The reconciliation money that has already flowed to DHS sits on a different track. The overview said those funds do not authorize every need the agency expects to face, and ICE leadership used that distinction to argue that one-time or specially directed funding cannot stand in for the annual budget cycle.
That contrast shaped much of the document’s internal logic. Large sums have already been approved, including the $75 billion ICE received through reconciliation, yet the agency still asked lawmakers for a new annual package to fund routine functions, investigations, support staff and administrative demands.
USCIS’s fee performance offered a separate measure of the department’s finances. The agency’s $7.5 billion in fiscal year 2025 fee revenue exceeded forecasts, and the overview said carryover balances remained well above targeted levels.
Those USCIS figures stood apart from ICE’s appropriated funding request, but they added to the budget snapshot across DHS. One agency highlighted fee collections and balances, while another stressed arrests, investigations and the need for direct congressional funding.
Lyons’s testimony to Congress added a note of institutional strain. ICE said the ongoing partial government shutdown continues to affect the agency, a reminder that even large enacted totals and ambitious funding requests can run into immediate operating pressure.
The budget overview, taken as a whole, presented ICE as an agency seeking to turn enforcement output into a case for more money. It paired the numbers, nearly 457,000 aliens arrested, more than 2,400 human smuggling operations dismantled, and nearly 1,500 child victims rescued, with a request that spans front-line enforcement, investigations, staff support and administrative capacity.
