Technology
Trump has spent 700 percent more on deadly weapons for ICE this year. Here’s what they now have
ICE has spent more than $70 million on new weapons in the first nine months of President Donald Trump’s second term, a 700 percent increase on the same period in 2024, according to a report.
Citing records from the Federal Procurement Data System, Popular Information reports that the immigration force, which answers to Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security, spent $71,515,762 on purchases of “small arms, ordnance and ordnance accessories manufacturing” between January 20 and October 18.
That compares to $9,715,843 in the equivalent period in 2024 under Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, and an average annual spend of just $8.4 million in the current president’s first term between 2017 and 2021.
“Small arms” refers to armor, explosives, chemical weapons, pistols, and rifles while “ordnance and ordnance accessories manufacturing” denotes other materials like artillery, barrels, extractors, and mounts.
While the majority of the money has been spent on guns and armor for field agents, the outlay has also seen ICE purchase “guided missile warheads and explosive components,” according to Popular Information.
The Independent has contacted the White House, the DHS, and ICE for comment on the reasoning behind the drastically increased investment.
Trump’s mission to bring about the “largest mass deportation program in history” by rounding up and removing undocumented immigrants in the United States illegally has seen ICE’s role greatly expanded and the agency flooded with federal funding.
It currently estimates that it has approximately 20,000 active agents but Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin recently said it has received “more than 175,000 applications” to join its ranks as a result of an ad blitz on platforms like Spotify, X, Meta, YouTube, and LinkedIn, with “more than 18,000 tentative job offers” issued.
McLaughlin added that the department’s “incentive processing,” such as signing-on bonuses, will continue during the ongoing U.S. government shutdown, which she blamed Democrats for.
Official data published at the end of September reported that there are currently 59,762 people being held in ICE detention centers.
The agency’s increased prominence has brought increased criticism over its methods, however. In June, its operations in downtown Los Angeles attracted mass protests, prompting Trump to activate the National Guard against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who warned it would escalate the existing tensions.
ICE has also attracted a deluge of unwanted headlines for the administration, including the recent revelation that it has arrested at least 20 children who are American citizens this year, two of whom had cancer.
Reports of operations involving armed agents “traumatizing” mothers and children and firing pepper balls at a priest attending a demonstration have not helped their publicity drive.
“What we’re seeing is a general escalation of violence and the use of excessive force by ICE officers,” Ed Yohnka of ACLU Illinois told NPR recently.
Yohnka has filed a lawsuit on behalf of protesters who believe that ICE’s tactics have violated their constitutional rights, stating: “All over the country, federal agents have shot, gassed, and detained individuals engaged in cherished and protected activities.”
The suit accuses ICE and other federal agencies of “the dangerous and indiscriminate use of near-lethal weapons such as tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper-balls, flash grenades, and other unwarranted and disproportionate tactics.”
