NEWS ALERT: GOP agrees to cut ICE funding to secure bipartisan deal and avoid shutdown

January 21, 2026

From the Washington Examiner: Congressional Republicans have agreed to cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and impose new restrictions on the agency in order to secure a bipartisan deal to fund the government and avoid a shutdown — a concession that comes even as President Donald Trump escalates ICE enforcement nationwide.

The cuts were tucked into a 1,059-page Homeland Security funding bill negotiated by the Senate and House Appropriations Committees and made public Tuesday. The bill cuts $115 million from ICE’s immigration enforcement and removal operations. It reduces the number of detention beds in migrant holding facilities by 5,500 and cuts funding for Customs and Border Protection by $1.8 billion. The legislation also earmarks $20 million to equip ICE agents with body cameras and money to provide agents with training for conflict de-escalation tactics.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) chalked up the cuts to what was needed to “get a deal” on funding the government and avoid another shutdown.

“Nobody gets everything they want. If Rosa [DeLauro] got to write this bill by herself, it’d be a very different bill. If I got to write it by myself, it’d be [different] — we don’t get to do that,” Cole said. “So we’ve got to find ways to work together.”

The report explains that Democrats had requested even larger cuts to ICE funding, along with requirements that agents wear body cameras, and a ban on agents wearing masks during immigration raids.

Republicans agreed to some cuts, and for more funding for body cameras.

CLICK HERE to access the entire bill.

“If their goal is to stop the funding of ICE, shutting down the rest of the Department is not going to accomplish that. They already have the money.”@HouseGOP heavily funded border security in our reconciliation package. Passing the full-year DHS appropriations bill is crucial,… pic.twitter.com/pkNBHF6gkI

— House Homeland GOP (@HomelandGOP) January 20, 2026