Rep. Ilhan Omar wants to gut ICE's budget and hand the money to the very communities federal agents have been targeting, a move conservatives call "un-American" and a reward for harboring illegal immigrants.
The Minnesota Democrat introduced the Make ICE Pay Act on Thursday, a bill that would redirect nearly $140 billion in Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol funding from President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act toward what Omar's office calls "local recovery efforts." The money would flow through the Department of Housing and Urban Development to nonprofits, small businesses, local governments, and states, all overseen by HUD's inspector general, and the program would expire three years after its creation.
Omar framed the legislation as a direct response to Operation Metro Surge, a federal immigration enforcement campaign in Minnesota. In a press release, she said the funds would "invest it into communities across the country that have been impacted by the Department of Homeland Security's heinous operations."
The reaction from the right was immediate and blunt. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana called the bill "un-American" in a post on X:
"This bill is un-American. This bill defunds law enforcement and gives their funding to the communities harboring criminal illegal aliens. Democrats fight for everyone except the American people."
Omar posted her own summary of the legislation on X, casting ICE as the aggressor and her bill as accountability.
"ICE has been tearing through our nation, devastating our neighborhoods, our cities, and our businesses. Our communities deserve accountability. My Make ICE Pay Act will redirect ICE's $140 billion budget to the communities they've hurt the most."
The bill's mechanics are straightforward: take the enforcement money Congress already approved and send it to groups Omar's office defines as "impacted." HUD would administer the grants. The inspector general would provide oversight. And after three years, the program would sunset.
What the bill does not do is define "impacted communities" with any specificity described in Omar's press release. It does not explain how recipients would be selected. And it does not address whether redirecting enforcement dollars would leave ICE and Border Patrol unable to carry out the operations Congress funded them to perform.
The dollar figure itself shifted across Omar's own rollout. Her press release described the bill as redirecting "nearly $140 billion" from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Elsewhere, the figure appeared as "over $100 billion." Omar's X post rounded it to "$140 billion." The discrepancies were not reconciled.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined the criticism on X, distilling the conservative objection into a single line:
"Defund ICE. Weaken the border. Then expect safer communities? That math isn't mathing."
Sanders's point tracks the broader Republican argument: that stripping enforcement agencies of their budgets while sending the money to localities that have resisted federal immigration operations amounts to rewarding noncompliance. Omar's bill does not address border security as a separate line item. It simply moves the money.
The conservative influencer account LibsofTikTok was sharper, posting on X: "The definition of America last. Denaturalize and deport." John Nagel, the Republican running against Omar in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District this November, went further, writing that "her entire existence is on crippling the United States. She is anti-police and pro communism."
Omar's office did not respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. The silence left the bill's rollout defined almost entirely by her press release and her critics' reaction.
The timing of the Make ICE Pay Act lands in the middle of a separate, unresolved chapter in Omar's political life. White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed to Fox News last week that the Department of Homeland Security is looking into longstanding allegations involving Omar, and he described the matter as an ongoing criminal investigation. Omar has said DHS never contacted her about the probe.
Homan confirmed ICE's involvement when pressed directly but declined to disclose details or say whether the federal government has evidence that Omar committed immigration or naturalization fraud.
"I'm confirming that ICE is, yeah, look, I said months ago that there's something that's been reported and needs to be looked at."
The allegations center on claims, never proven in public records, that Omar married a man critics allege is her brother as part of an immigration scheme. Omar has repeatedly denied the accusation. In December, she dismissed it as "bigoted lies" and wrote on social media that Trump was obsessed with her. Federal officials have reportedly been pulling records related to the alleged marriage fraud, and DHS Secretary Mullin has publicly stated that the department is investigating.
None of that means Omar is guilty of anything. But introducing a bill to defund the very agency investigating you, and naming it the "Make ICE Pay Act", is a political choice that invites scrutiny on its own terms.
Omar's legislation has no realistic chance of passing a Republican-controlled Congress. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act already cleared both chambers and was signed into law. Redirecting its enforcement funding would require a majority that does not exist and a president who would never sign it.
So the bill functions less as legislation and more as a statement, a marker for the Democratic left that enforcement itself is the problem, that the communities where illegal immigrants live are victims of federal action, and that the proper remedy is to take money from the agents and hand it to the neighborhoods.
That framing puts Omar squarely at odds with the majority of Americans who support immigration enforcement and border security. It also puts her at odds with the law Congress already passed. The Make ICE Pay Act does not propose an alternative enforcement mechanism. It does not fund deportation courts, asylum processing, or legal immigration infrastructure. It simply removes the money from enforcement and gives it away.
Omar has also faced pressure from watchdog groups pushing the House Ethics Committee to obtain her financial records, another thread in a pattern of scrutiny that has followed her for years. And her confrontation with federal immigration authorities is not new; she was previously removed from a Minneapolis ICE facility after the Trump administration enforced an advance-notice rule for congressional visits.
Banks summed up the conservative view plainly: "Democrats fight for everyone except the American people." Whether that line lands as a slogan or a fact depends on what you think a $140 billion reward for resisting federal law enforcement actually accomplishes.
When a sitting member of Congress introduces a bill to defund the agency investigating her and names it the "Make ICE Pay Act," the only people who end up paying are the taxpayers who funded the enforcement in the first place.