Senator Baldwin Cosponsors Bill to Redirect Excessive ICE Funding to Local Police

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin announced she is cosponsoring the PUBLIC SAFETY Act to redirect almost $75 billion in funding passed in the Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and send it instead to local law enforcement to help hire and train 200,000 local cops in communities across the U.S.

“Under Donald Trump and Kristi Noem’s leadership, masked, armed, and untrained agents have flooded into communities, making our streets less safe. It’s clear that Donald Trump’s ICE is out of control and I’m fighting to rein in the chaos and violence we’re seeing before more of our neighbors get hurt,” said Senator Baldwin. “ICE does not need this blank check and we should instead double down on what we know actually keeps people safe – and that is investing in our local police.”

While federal officers have an important role to play in targeting undocumented violent criminals and securing the border, the Trump Administration’s immigration policies are not keeping Americans safe. Instead, the reckless Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary, Kristi Noem, is putting thousands of unprepared and undertrained agents in our communities with unacceptable results. In January alone, ICE and Customs and Border Patrol agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. As of late November 2025, 73% of individuals held in ICE detention did not have a criminal conviction, and less than 5% had a violent criminal conviction. At the same time, ICE has lowered its training and hiring standards, putting undertrained and unvetted agents on the streets, straining already under-staffed police departments, and creating more distrust of local law enforcement.

The Providing Useful Budgets for Localities to Invest in Cops by Substituting Appropriations from Federal Enforcement To Yield Results (PUBLIC SAFETY) Act would prioritize effective law enforcement by investing in local police officers who undergo thorough training and have real ties to the communities they serve. The PUBLIC SAFETY Act would:

• Reallocate $29.85 billion in OBBBA funds for ICE’s enforcement and operations to the COPS Hiring Program for the hiring of over 200,000 local police officers nationwide;
• Waive the COPS Hiring Program’s matching contribution requirements for small jurisdictions; and
• Reallocate $45 billion in OBBBA funds designated for unnecessary and harmful additions to ICE’s detention capacity to the Byrne JAG program, which provides funding to support training, crime victim assistance, and crime prevention.

This bill would not rescind ICE’s regular appropriations, leaving the agency with historically normal funding levels to conduct traditional immigration enforcement operations.

A one-pager on this legislation is available here. This bill is led by Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NM).

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.