The President’s budget request includes $62.2 billion in discretionary spending for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a 2 percent jump from 2023 levels. Compared to last year’s request of $60.4 billion, this year’s is 3 percent higher. Paired with mandatory funding, the full DHS budget request for FY25 is $107.9 billion, a 4.6 percent increase over last year’s request.
Border Security – Border security funding, generally understood as the combined funding for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), rose from $28.2 billion for discretionary and mandatory funding in the FY24 request to $29.5 billion in the FY25 request, a 4.3 percent increase. Most of this increase is for ICE, which added $984 million to its budget over last year’s request, an 11.3 percent increase. Within ICE’s budget request, the administration appears to be putting more of an emphasis on deportation, requesting $649 million for ICE’s Transportation and Removal program, a $225 million, or 53 percent, increase over last year’s funding request. This funding covers chartered and commercial flights, as well as ground transportation contracts. The massive funding increases for ICE and for deportation in particular come during an election year in which appearing tough on illegal immigration is a central campaign issue for the upcoming election.
Immigration Services – The budget request includes $6.8 billion for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is charged with managing the nation’s immigration system. That’s a $312 million increase over last year’s request, a 4.8 percent increase. The vast majority of USCIS funding is mandatory.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) – The budget request includes $33.1 billion in discretionary and mandatory funding for FEMA, an increase of $2.9 billion, or 9.5 percent, over last year’s request. The majority of this funding, $22.7 billion, is for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF), which FEMA uses for responding to and recovering from major disasters and improving climate resilience. This represents a 13.9 percent increase over the FY23 enacted amount of $19.9 billion for the DRF, underscoring the growing costs of climate change. For a more in-depth analysis of FEMA’s budget request, click here.
Southwest Border Contingency Fund – The request includes $4.7 billion for the Southwest Border Contingency Fund (SWBCF). First proposed for FY24 and requested at the same funding level, the SWBCF is a pot of emergency funding available “to provide resources to DHS when migration along the Southwest border conditions warrant additional capacity,” according to a DHS summary of its budget request. While funds for the SWBCF if certain pre-defined conditions are met. These funds could be transferred to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Cybersecurity – The budget request includes $3 billion for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which works to manage cybersecurity risks to the United States. This year’s request is $47 million less than last year’s, a 1.5 percent drop.
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