Trump set to expand crackdown on immigration despite backlash

US President Donald Trump is set to enforce a tougher crackdown on immigrants despite signs of a political backlash from critics of the plan. 

Media reports said on Sunday that the Trump administration is preparing a plan for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new ‍funding.

The plan is 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.

To enforce the new plan, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (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.

The Trump administration has also aimed at legal immigrants.

Trump's immigration crackdown

The Trump administration says it has decided to end deportation protections for Syrian immigrants.

Since Trump's return to power, ICE agents have raided businesses, arrested spouses of US citizens at their green card interviews, pulled people from ​certain countries out of their naturalisation ceremonies, moments before they were to become citizens, and revoked thousands of student visas.

However, till now, agents have largely avoided raiding farms, factories and ‌other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

Trump’s plan to expand the crackdown on immigrants comes despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of the midterm elections.

Protests erupt in California, Texas against Trump's mass deportations

Protesters rally against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in California, and Texas.

Miami, one of the cities most affected by Trump’s crackdown on immigrants because of its large migrant population, elected its first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades last week in what the mayor-elect said was, in part, a reaction to the president's anti-immigration policy.

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 extra-constitutionally,” said Mike Madrid, a moderate Republican political strategist.

“There is no question that is a problem for the president and Republicans,” he added.

Trump deportation policy set to backfire on US economy

Within a month of Trump

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

Rising public unease ⁠has focused on masked federal agents using aggressive tactics such as deploying tear gas in residential neighborhoods and detaining US citizens.

In addition to expanding enforcement actions, Trump, who has promised to remove a million immigrants each year, has stripped hundreds of thousands of Haitian, Venezuelan and Afghan immigrants of temporary legal status, adding to the number of migrants who could be deported from the United States by authorities.

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