Trump praises border security funding but says less spending needed now

President Donald Trump praised the billions of dollars in border security and immigration efforts included in the so-called “big, beautiful bill” he signed into law last week — though he suggested Tuesday the administration may not need to spend as much on enforcement efforts there as previously thought.

Speaking to reporters at the White House Tuesday afternoon, Trump touted the billions of dollars approved in the Republican-led spending package, including billions in funding to turbocharge the hardline immigration crackdown his administration has prioritized in his second White House term.

Among other things, the law includes $45 billion for the construction of new immigration detention centers, and roughly $30 billion in spending to fund Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations — including new spending on transportation, for the maintenance of ICE facilities and to support the hiring of an estimated 10,000 additional deportation officers.

Trump told reporters Tuesday that his administration’s border crackdown could allow them to further trim spending at the border, reiterating an earlier claim that “zero” migrants entered the U.S. last month. 

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He touted the spending on border security, though he noted, “I don’t think we’re going to need so much of it [there], because we had zero come in last month,” he said, in apparent reference to border crossings.

 “So I’m not sure how much of it we want to spend.”

“You may think about that,” he said. “You may actually think about saving a lot of money because the wall has been largely built, and it obviously worked.”

Since taking office in January, Trump has embraced an aggressive immigration agenda, prioritizing border security efforts, massively expanding ICE raids, quickly deporting certain migrants, and attempting to end birthright citizenship protections for migrants born in the U.S. by way of executive order, among other things. 

In touting the “zero” border crossings, Trump appears to be referencing a June 17 report from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

That report is the most recent publicly available data provided by the federal agency, which said it released zero illegal immigrants into the U.S. during the last 30-day period. That’s a stark drop from the Biden administration, and the previous month. 

The number of border encounters also decreased, CBP said, with U.S. Border Patrol officials reporting only 8,725 encounters with illegal immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. in May, compared to 117,905 such encounters in May 2024 under the Biden administration. 

Trump did not immediately detail more specifics on immigration enforcement efforts funded by the Republican spending bill. But he used the moment to excoriate the Biden administration and Democrats for what he criticized as lax border policies — and which he suggested Tuesday that other countries had sought to exploit under his predecessor’s White House tenure. 

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Biden, Trump said Tuesday, allowed people to enter the U.S. “just totally unchecked. Unchecked, unvetted, open borders.” 

“The whole world was dumped into our country from prisons, from gangs, from mental institutions,” Trump claimed. It was not immediately clear what country or asylums Trump was referring to, and he did not elaborate further.

“We have many people walking the streets, walking in areas that we don’t know anything about that came out of insane asylums,” he said. 

“And it’s amazing the job that you and Tom Homan are doing, by the way,” Trump said, turning to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. 

“But, we have to get them out, and we have no choice. And we are getting them out.”

Trump’s remarks on Tuesday came as he hosted Cabinet leaders at the White House for the first time since April. 

It also comes as his enforcement campaign has touched off a mixed response from the American public. 

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Trump’s approval rating on immigration dipped to a new low in a Quinnipiac poll released late last month, with a more than 56% majority of U.S. voters saying they disapprove of how ICE is doing its job. 

Nearly two-thirds of U.S. voters, or 64%, also said they prefer giving most immigrants a pathway to legal status, the survey found.