Rep. Ilhan Omar has introduced legislation that would redirect nearly $140 billion in immigration enforcement funding to communities she says were harmed by ICE operations, a proposal conservatives are calling "un-American."
Omar, a Democrat representing Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, unveiled the Make ICE Pay Act in a press release and promoted it on social media. The bill would pull ICE and Customs and Border Protection funding authorized under President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act and funnel it toward what her office describes as "local recovery efforts" for jurisdictions affected by Department of Homeland Security enforcement operations.
The bill has zero chance of advancing while Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White House. But as a statement of priorities, it drew immediate and fierce pushback from Republican lawmakers, governors, and conservative commentators who see it as a reward for communities that resist federal immigration enforcement.
Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana posted on X with a blunt assessment:
"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's press release described the legislation as a direct response to "Operation Metro Surge," an immigration enforcement operation conducted in Minnesota. She characterized DHS operations as harmful to neighborhoods, cities, and businesses, language her critics view as siding with illegal immigrants over the agents enforcing federal law.
On X, Omar wrote:
"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, as described in Omar's press release, would route the redirected funds through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD's inspector general would oversee the program. Eligible recipients would include local governments, nonprofits, small businesses, and what Omar's office calls "other impacted entities." The money could go toward economic relief, schools, healthcare, psychological services, increased local government expenses, investigations, and what the bill terms "memorialization efforts."
The program would expire three years after its creation.
One notable detail: Omar's own social media post and press release cite "nearly $140 billion," while the article's reporting describes the figure as "over $100 billion." The source of the discrepancy is unclear. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, referenced in the legislation, contains roughly $70 billion to fund ICE and CBP through 2029. How Omar's bill arrives at a figure nearly double that amount is not explained in the available reporting.
The conservative response was swift and uniform. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders posted on X:
"Defund ICE. Weaken the border. Then expect safer communities? That math isn't mathing."
The conservative influencer account LibsofTikTok called it "the definition of America last" and added: "Denaturalize and deport."
John Nagel, the Republican running against Omar in Minnesota's 5th Congressional District, went further, posting on X that "her entire existence is on crippling the United States. She is anti-police and pro communism."
The bill's structure reveals a particular set of assumptions. It treats federal immigration enforcement not as a lawful government function but as a source of community damage requiring financial compensation, a framework that inverts how most Americans understand the purpose of agencies like ICE and Border Patrol. Under Omar's proposal, the communities that would receive taxpayer money are, in many cases, the same jurisdictions that have resisted cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
That is exactly the point Banks made. His "un-American" label was not about tone. It was about the bill's logic: strip enforcement agencies of their funding and hand it to the places that sheltered the people those agencies were trying to remove.
Omar introduced the Make ICE Pay Act at a moment when she faces serious legal scrutiny of her own. White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed to Fox News that DHS is looking into longstanding allegations involving the congresswoman. Homan described it as an "ongoing criminal investigation" but declined to disclose specifics.
Homan told Fox News: "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."
He declined to say whether the federal government has evidence that Omar committed immigration or naturalization fraud. Omar has long faced allegations that she married a man critics allege is her brother as part of an immigration scheme. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has publicly addressed those allegations, and the matter has drawn sustained conservative attention for years.
Omar dismissed the claims in December, calling them "bigoted lies" and writing on social media that Trump was obsessed with her. Fox News Digital reached out to Omar's office for comment on the Make ICE Pay Act but did not report receiving a response.
The timing raises an obvious question. A sitting member of Congress who is herself the subject of a federal criminal investigation by ICE introduced a bill to defund ICE and redirect its budget. Omar has said federal investigators have not contacted her, but the optics of the move are difficult to separate from the probe hanging over her.
DHS Secretary Mullin, in a separate context captured in a Fox News video segment, responded to the broader Democratic push against immigration enforcement. He pointed to Trump's signing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its $70 billion in funding for ICE and CBP through 2029. Mullin called out Democrats for attempting to defund border protection and highlighted sanctuary cities, the increasing number of arrested illegal immigrants with felony charges, and the Trump administration's zero-tolerance approach toward those who harbor criminals or assault law enforcement officers.
Omar's bill sits at the opposite end of that spectrum. Where the administration is expanding enforcement capacity and funding, her legislation would hollow it out and distribute the money to the very communities where enforcement operations have been most active.
Omar attended a news conference with members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus on January 13, 2026, focused on DHS funding and accountability. Three days later, on January 16, she appeared at a field hearing at the Minnesota Senate Building in St. Paul, a hearing titled "Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump's Deadly Assault on Minnesota." The hearing title itself reflects the rhetorical frame Omar and her allies have adopted: that routine immigration enforcement constitutes an "assault" on American communities.
Separately, investigators have pressed for answers about a reported $30 million swing in Omar's personal finances, adding another layer of scrutiny to a lawmaker who has made accountability for federal agencies her rallying cry while facing mounting questions about her own record.
The Make ICE Pay Act will not become law. Republicans will not defund their own enforcement apparatus, and the White House has shown no interest in retreating from its immigration crackdown. Omar knows this. The bill is a messaging document, a statement of values from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
And the values it states are worth examining plainly. The bill treats immigration enforcement as a harm to be compensated. It treats the communities where illegal immigrants have settled as victims of the federal government rather than beneficiaries of its protection. It proposes "memorialization efforts" for enforcement operations, the kind of language typically reserved for natural disasters or acts of violence, not for the lawful execution of immigration statutes.
Banks called it un-American. Sanders said the math doesn't work. The conservative influencer space called for Omar's deportation. Even Nagel, her Republican challenger, framed it as part of a broader pattern of hostility toward American institutions.
When a lawmaker under federal criminal investigation introduces a bill to defund the agency investigating her and send its budget to her political allies, the legislation speaks for itself, no matter how many press releases dress it up as community accountability.
