President Donald Trump signed his so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” tax overhaul into law on Friday, proving once again that he knows how to sell. Last week, when many lawmakers still didn’t fully understand the contents of his mega-bill and the initiative had suffered a setback in the Senate, Trump turned up the heat with a real sales pitch at a White House event where he went for the jugular: The historic package of laws, which he wanted ready to sign by Independence Day, would provide so much money to deport immigrants, secure the border, and make the country “safe” that supporting it was a no-brainer. And so it was.

Just as he intended, Trump signed the law into law on July 4th during a ceremony at the White House, with fighter jets circling overhead in commemorative stunts. The Republican president said he had “never seen so many happy people,” calling it “the biggest tax cut, the biggest spending cut, and the biggest investment in border security in the history of the United States.”

At the heart of the controversial legislative package is a budget that will overnight transform Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into the best-funded federal security agency in U.S. history, according to independent estimates. According to these calculations, the U.S. immigration enforcement apparatus will have an unprecedented budget of more than $100 billion. Some forecasts put the total allocated to immigration enforcement activities at $170 billion, more than the Gross Domestic Product of many countries.

ICE's budget was previously $8 billion, but this year it had already exceeded $1 billion due to a rampant immigration offensive driven by President Trump, who has called for the arrest of some 3,000 immigrants per day. The agenda has resulted in a climate of fear among immigrants, affecting industries such as agriculture, construction, and hospitality, and has sparked protests, particularly in California, that have left dozens injured and hundreds detained. The overspending prompted lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Committee to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and added urgency to calls for Congress to pass the"Big Beautiful Bill."

ICE's new budget will exceed that of all Justice Department agencies combined—which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Marshals Service, among other agencies. The FBI, for example, has a projected fiscal year 2026 budget of about $10.1 billion. The DEA's budget is less than $3 billion.

ICE will receive $45 billion to build new immigration detention centers—like the recently opened Alligator Alcatraz, built in less than two weeks with temporary tents in the middle of the Everglades, west of Miami. This will more than double the capacity to house detainees, currently estimated at a maximum of 41,500. Some $14 billion will be allocated to deportation operations, according to the Brennan Center, an independent law and public policy institute in New York.

The funds will also allow for the hiring and training of more agents, and for more arrests to be made in complex operations coordinated with local authorities across the country, under a program known as 289(g). ICE staffing will increase from about 20,000 agents to 100,000, according to an analysis by Reuters and the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigrant organization.

In contrast, the new law allocates some $3.3 billion to hire more immigration judges, lawyers, and staff, a fundamental imbalance in the system where more resources will be allocated to detention than to court proceedings, worsening the existing backlog, according to the American Immigration Council. Some think tanks estimate there is a backlog of some $3.7 billion in U.S. immigration courts.

On the other hand, the law contemplates increasing fees for immigration procedures. Applying for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), for example, will increase from $50 to $500—a 900% increase—and humanitarian parole will rise from $630 to $1,000.

For the first time, asylum seekers in the US will be required to pay a $100 fee. Until now, the US has not charged a fee for asylum applications, in line with international protocols and conventions protecting vulnerable people who view this practice as an obstacle, particularly for impoverished or persecuted individuals.

Some $46 billion will be allocated to expanding the wall along the border with Mexico, as well as $5 billion for checkpoints and $4 billion for border agents. While for Trump, the wall is an unfulfilled promise from his first term, in practice, the number of illegal crossings has plummeted to historic records since he took office again in January with an anti-immigrant agenda that included suspending the asylum system.

The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency that provides economic analysis of public policies and bills, estimates that the new law will increase the national deficit by about $3.3 trillion. Groups such as The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, have pointed to positive elements in the law, such as some fiscal stability and support for investment, but have highlighted excessive exemptions and politicization.