After Donald Trump announced that he was sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles, there was some public conversation about whether the president was simply trying to distract attention from his other difficulties, including the Republicans’ far-right domestic policy megabill. But what if the two stories are more closely linked than is generally understood?
As the White House prepared to deploy Marines to California, Axios reported that congressional Republicans want to lean into the local unrest, seeing it as a political winner for the GOP. The report added:
Republicans also see it as an opportunity to remind voters that a key part of their sweeping ‘one, big beautiful bill’ involves providing significant resources to ICE. The conversation around the bill has largely been focused on tax and spending cuts.
An NBC News analysis emphasized a related point, noting that congressional Republicans have argued that protests in L.A. “are another example of why they need to pass that megabill, saying the money for immigration enforcement included in the bill is key to finishing the job that ICE has started in states like California.”
This is an underappreciated detail.
After months of controversial and legally dubious tactics in communities nationwide, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out raids in three locations across Los Angeles on Friday, sparking a predictable public backlash. For those eager to see a lot more of these raids and public backlashes, have I got a bill for you. As a new Slate analysis explained:
Currently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement says it has ‘an annual budget of approximately $8 billion,’ and $3.4 billion of that is spent on detention, according to the [American Immigration Council]. Under the [One Big Beautiful Bill Act], the agency would be given $45 billion for immigration detention alone through September 2029, which amounts to about $12 billion annually. The bill also gives ICE $14 billion to spend on deportation operations and $8 billion to hire more ICE officers.
Heidi Altman, vice president of policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told Slate, “The kinds of dollars we’re talking about would really unlock an ability for the Trump administration to level up the cruelty of their enforcement actions at taxpayer expense in a way that I’m not sure we can even envision right now.”
ICE’s recent record of dramatic raids and abusive tactics has generated a national controversy, but the only thing stopping ICE from doing more of this is a lack of resources. It is a “problem” that congressional Republicans are eager “fix” with their pending reconciliation package.
Indeed, Donald Trump isn't exactly being shy about his future intentions.
As The American Prospect’s David Dayen summarized, the GOP bill would make it possible for the Trump administration to conduct L.A.-style raids “in dozens of cities at once.” Dayen concluded, “So if you don’t like what’s happening [in Los Angeles], it’s coming to your town if the bill passes.”