Senators Coons, Cortez Masto introduce legislation to redirect excessive ICE funding to local police

WASHINGTON- U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) introduced the PUBLIC SAFETY Act to redirect almost $75 billion in funding passed in the Republicans' One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and send it instead to local law enforcement programs to help hire and train 200,000 local cops in communities across the U.S.

While federal law enforcement has an important role to play in targeting undocumented violent criminals and securing the border, the Trump administration's immigration policies are not keeping Americans safe. Instead, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Kristi Noem, is putting thousands of unprepared and undertrained agents in our communities with unacceptable results. In the past year, ProPublica estimates that ICE has detained over 170 U.S. citizens. As of late November 2025, 73% of individuals held in ICE detention did not have a criminal conviction, and less than 5% had a violent criminal conviction. At the same time, ICE has lowered its training and hiring standards, putting undertrained and unvetted agents on the streets, straining already under-staffed police departments, and creating more distrust of local law enforcement.

"Well-trained and accountable law enforcement officers who know their communities are how we keep our cities and towns safe. Flooding our streets with poorly trained and unaccountable ICE and Border Patrol agents while cutting police budgets across the country has done the opposite and American citizens are increasingly endangered," said Senator Coons. "This bill gives our local law enforcement what they need to keep us safe - because our communities know best what they need - while still making sure DHS can fulfill its legally assigned role."

"The Trump administration's actions are not making our communities any safer, in fact they're doing just the opposite," said Senator Cortez Masto. "Instead of giving ICE 75 billion extra dollars to hire untrained ICE agents to patrol American communities, let's invest that money where it will actually help - in hiring local police officers who are trained to fight crime in a way that earns community trust."

The bill would prioritize effective law enforcement by investing in local police officers who undergo thorough training and have real ties to the communities they serve. The Providing Useful Budgets for Localities to Invest in Cops by Substituting Appropriations from Federal Enforcement To Yield Results (PUBLIC SAFETY) Act would:

• Reallocate $29.85 billion in OBBBA funds for ICE's enforcement and operations to the COPS Hiring Program for the hiring of over 200,000 local police officers nationwide
• Waive the COPS Hiring Program's matching contribution requirements for small jurisdictions
• Reallocate $45 billion in OBBBA funds designated for unnecessary and harmful additions to ICE's detention capacity to the Byrne JAG program, which provides funding to support training, crime victim assistance, and crime prevention

This bill would notrescind ICE's regular appropriations. It would leave the agency with historically normal funding levels to conduct traditional immigration enforcement operations.

In addition to Senators Coons and Cortez Masto, the PUBLIC SAFETY Act is cosponsored by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

A one-pager can be found here.