Trump to deport more workers from US in 2026 despite backlash

United States President Donald Trump is preparing for a more aggressive immigration crackdown in 2026 with billions in new funding, including by raiding more workplaces.

Trump has already surged immigration agents into major U.S. cities, where they swept through neighbourhoods and clashed with residents.

While federal agents this year conducted some high-profile raids on businesses, they largely avoided raiding farms, factories, and other businesses that are economically important but known to employ immigrants without legal status.

ICE and Border Patrol will get $170 billion in additional funds through September 2029 – a huge surge of funding over their existing annual budgets of about $19 billion after the Republican-controlled Congress passed a massive spending package in July, Reuters reported.

Administration officials said they plan to hire thousands more agents, open new detention centres, pick up more immigrants in local jails, and partner with outside companies to track down people without legal status.

The expanded deportation plans come despite growing signs of political backlash ahead of next year’s midterm elections.

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Miami, one of the cities most affected by Trump’s crackdown because of its large immigrant population, elected its first Democratic mayor in nearly three decades last week in what the mayor-elect said was, in part, a reaction to the president.

Other local elections and polling have suggested rising concern among voters wary of aggressive immigration tactics.

A Republican political strategist, Mike Madrid, said: “People are beginning to see this not as an immigration question anymore as much as it is a violation of rights, a violation of due process, and militarising neighbourhoods extraconstitutionally.

“There is no question that is a problem for the president and Republicans.”

Trump’s overall approval rating on immigration policy fell from 50% in March, before he launched crackdowns in several major U.S. cities, to 41% in mid-December, for what had been his strongest issue.

Rising public unease has focused on masked federal agents using aggressive tactics such as deploying tear gas in residential neighborhoods and detaining U.S. citizens.

The Star