The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago
If the immigration enforcement apparatus of the United States were its own national military, it would be the 13th most heavily funded in the world. This puts it higher than the national militaries of Poland, Italy, Australia, Canada, Turkey and Spain — and just below Israel.
That bloated force is due to a massive funding increase in President Donald Trump’s budget bill that went into effect October 1, and it comes as Chicagoland faces an escalation of violence from ICE and other federal agencies. Agents are tear gassing and beating protesters, raiding and ransacking communities across the area, and detaining people at homeless shelters and hospitals. They are roaming the city and surrounding suburbs in masks, sometimes in plain clothes and unmarked cars, and other times — especially near protests — in armored vehicles, wearing the militarized, camouflage uniforms that are the hallmark of soldiers.
“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, the vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union.
The $170 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement in Trump’s bill includes border control, detention and deportation, as well as funds for local law enforcement. The funds are available through September 2029, and the president’s budget request suggests that the administration expects to spend down fairly evenly over that period. On an annual basis this adds about $42.5 billion per year for immigration enforcement.
The $170 billion total includes $45 billion for expanding detention capacity, and $29.9 billion for ICE removal and enforcement (including new ICE officers and transportation costs). This brings the budget for detention facilities to about $14 billion per year, about triple the current budget.
The $14 billion annual budget for detentions alone — just a portion of the new spending — is more than the total military spending of 124 countries, including Norway, Pakistan, Denmark, Greece, and Iran. (There are 195 countries in the world, but not all of them have publicly available data about their annual military spending for the most recent year. However, recent estimates of military spending in the missing countries suggest their spending is not likely to be higher than $42.5 billion.)
