Harshbarger Advances Framework to Fully Fund ICE, Border Patrol for Remainder of the Trump Presidency

April 30, 2026 Press Release Washington, D.C. — Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) released the following statement after voting in favor of S. Con. Res. 33, the FY26 budget resolution which will lay the foundation to fully fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). "After Senate Democrats voted to defund our homeland security sixteen times, House Republicans are doing what needs to be done to work around their roadblocks and keep America safe," said Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger. "East Tennesseans have paid the price for open borders: fentanyl flooding our communities, criminals released into our streets, and a border that was completely out of control under Biden. President Trump reversed that, and we are not going back. I proudly voted for this budget resolution to keep America secure, fund the agents protecting us, and make sure the Biden open borders era is gone for good." A budget resolution serves as a framework to set blueprints for federal spending, revenues, and deficits for the upcoming year. S. Con. Res. 33 allows Congress through the budget reconciliation process to sufficiently fund ICE and Border Patrol for 3.5 years, carrying through the remainder of Trump’s presidency. The budget resolution’s deficits are equal to 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in every year from 2029 to 2035. This is achieved through $9.7 trillion in savings over 10 years. Immigration Security Fast Facts: During the Biden administration there were: Over 11 million encounters with illegal aliens, including 8.3 million at the southern border of which over 5 million were released into the United States. 1.7 million border encounters involved "special interest aliens" i.e. people from countries that DHS has determined pose great national security and counterintelligence threats to the U.S., including Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, and Turkey. 382 encounters with illegal aliens on the terror watchlist, and at least 99 of those were released into the U.S. Over 1.7 million "got-aways" i.e. illegal aliens that are known to have entered without ever being encountered or apprehended subsequently by law enforcement. Illegal crossings at our southern border have reached historic lows thanks to President Trump's leadership and Republican passage of the Working Families Tax Cuts : April 2026 was the eleventh month in a row that Border Patrol released zero illegal aliens into the interior of the country. In January 2026, Border Patrol apprehended only 6,073 illegal aliens—the fourth consecutive monthly decline and 93% below the FY1992–FY2024 average. In 2025, encounters with illegal aliens at the southern border fell to their lowest level since 1970. DHS arrested over 480,000 illegal aliens with criminal records in the past 12 months. Seventy percent of illegal aliens who have been detained under President Trump's second term have either a criminal conviction or pending criminal charge. CBP seized 583,000 pounds of illicit drugs nationwide over the past year. This included 12,027 pounds of fentanyl, 170,119 pounds of methamphetamine, and significant quantities of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. ###