Trump Set to Expand Immigration Crackdown in 2026

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 deployed additional immigration agents to major U.S. cities, where they conducted enforcement operations that prompted community responses.

While federal agents this year conducted some high-profile raids on businesses, they largely avoided raiding farms, factories and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

ICE and Border Patrol will get $170 billion in additional funds through September 2029 - a huge surge of funding over their existing annual budgets of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a massive spending package in July.

Administration officials say they plan to hire thousands more agents, open new ‍detention centers, pick up more immigrants in local jails and partner with outside companies to track down people without legal status.

The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead ‍of next year’s midterm elections.

Miami, one of the cities most affected by Trump’s crackdown because of its large immigrant population, elected its first Democrat mayor in nearly three decades last week in what the mayor-elect said was, in part, a reaction to the president.

Other local elections and polling have suggested rising concern among voters wary of ⁠aggressive immigration tactics.

"People are beginning to see this not as an immigration question anymore as much as it is a violation of rights, a violation of due process and militarizing neighborhoods extraconstitutionally," said Mike Madrid, a moderate Republican political strategist.

"There is no question that is a problem for the president and Republicans."

Trump’s overall approval rating on immigration policy fell from 50% in March, before he launched crackdowns in ​several major U.S. cities, to 41% in mid-December, for what had been his strongest issue.

Some public concern has centered on reports of federal agents using crowd-control tactics and detaining individuals during enforcement actions.

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.

So far, some 622,000 immigrants have been deported since Trump took office in January.

White House border czar Tom Homan told Reuters Trump had delivered on his promise of a historic deportation operation and removing criminals while ⁠shutting down illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Homan said the number of arrests will increase sharply as ICE hires more officers and expands detention capacity with the new funding.

“I think you're going to see the numbers explode greatly next year,” Homan said.

Homan said the plans “absolutely” include more enforcement actions at workplaces.

Sarah Pierce, director of social policy at the center-left group Third Way, said U.S. businesses have been reluctant to push back on Trump's immigration crackdown in the past year but could be prompted to speak up if the focus turns to employers.

Pierce said it will be interesting to see "whether or not businesses finally stand up to this administration."

Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House promising record levels of ⁠deportations, saying it was needed after years of high levels of illegal immigration under his Democrat predecessor, ​Joe Biden.

He launched a campaign sending federal agents to U.S. cities to pursue immigration enforcement, which led to protests and lawsuits alleging racial profiling and excessive force.

Some businesses shut down to avoid raids or because of a lack of customers. Parents vulnerable to arrest kept their children home from school or had neighbors walk them.

Some U.S. citizens started ‍carrying passports. Government data indicates that a significant share of those arrested by the Trump administration face only immigration-related violations, according to ICE figures.

Some 41% of the roughly 54,000 people arrested by ICE and detained by ‌late November had no criminal record beyond a suspected immigration violation, agency figures show.

In the first few weeks in January, before Trump took office, just 6% of those arrested and detained by ICE were not facing charges for other crimes or previously convicted. 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 and affect the U.S. economy and Republican-leaning business owners.

Analysts say potential labor cost increases could affect inflation, an issue expected to play a significant role in the November elections.

Administration officials earlier this year exempted ‍such businesses from enforcement on Trump’s orders, then quickly reversed, Reuters reported at the time.

Some immigration hardliners have called for more workplace enforcement.

"Eventually you’re going to have to go after these employers,” said Jessica Vaughan, policy director for the Center for Immigration Studies, which backs lower levels of immigration. “When that starts happening the employers will start cleaning up their acts on their own.”