Trump’s deportation operations have cost US cities hundreds of millions, and Congress just approved record funding to expand them further

Congress has approved record funding to expand the Trump administration’s immigration operations, even as new research shows these deployments have already cost US cities hundreds of millions of dollars. This means the operations are likely to scale up further in 2026, despite the financial strain they have already placed on local communities.

When President Trump took office, he launched military-style immigration operations across the country, aimed at carrying out millions of deportations, particularly in Democrat-led cities like Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and Portland. One of the largest deployments sent roughly 3,000 officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Border Patrol to Minneapolis, which officials called the largest immigration action in US history.

According to The Independent, these operations came with a heavy price tag for local governments. Police departments, many already dealing with staffing shortages from 2020-era resignations, had to spend millions in overtime costs just to manage protests and maintain order.

The financial toll on US cities has been staggering and hard to ignore

In Los Angeles, after agents were sent there last summer, the Los Angeles Police Department spent $41 million on overtime in June alone. The city also had to use its reserve funds to cover legal expenses from lawsuits related to police responses to widespread protests.

Minneapolis faced a similarly difficult situation. Its police department, already understaffed, spent more than $6 million on overtime and standby pay between January 7 and February 8, more than double the city’s annual overtime budget.

Police Chief Brian O’Hara said he couldn’t “imagine any other city going through the intensity and the sheer amount of chaos that happened here. It was terrible.” He added that Minneapolis was truly “overwhelmed” by the surge of agents. The city later estimated that the White House’s Operation Metro Surge cost it $203 million in lost economic activity.

In Portland, police nearly doubled their 2024 overtime payouts for event response calls, with officers stationed around the clock near an ICE facility that drew protests and violent clashes. A single visit from then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem required nearly 3,000 hours of police overtime. The Trump administration has faced scrutiny over several high-stakes national security decisions, including a controversial military call that left Americans dead.

Smaller cities also felt the impact. An immigration operation in Maine cost the state around $3.4 million in lost retail sales in just 10 days, with the overall impact approaching $20 million. The mayor of Broadview, a Chicago suburb with an ICE facility, reported that responding to protests during the Illinois surge cost more than $700,000.

While the administration has temporarily paused launching new mass operations in “blue cities,” immigration officers are still averaging more than 1,000 arrests per day in early 2026, nearly double the rate from the same period last year. These arrests have triggered hundreds of emergency legal challenges, often overwhelming local Justice Department prosecutors.

One federal prosecutor was even heard saying in a courtroom, “This job sucks,” due to the volume of habeas corpus petitions, which ran between 300 and 400 daily between January and mid-February. Even prominent Trump allies have shown signs of frustration with the administration, as seen in Joe Rogan’s sharp criticism of a Trump-backed event.

With Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation this week to lead the Department of Homeland Security, and record Congressional funding already approved, immigration operations are only expected to grow further in 2026.