The Biden border legacy is now coming with a price tag—and the Trump administration wants local communities to have the resources to clean it up.
The Department of Justice is offering $3 billion in new grants to municipalities that say they were left carrying the financial burden of the Biden administration’s immigration policies, with one major condition: If cities want the federal money, they must work with federal immigration authorities.
The program has been given an almost brutally fitting name: Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide, or BIDEN.
Under the program, cities and local governments can use the money to hire additional police officers, upgrade technology and construct temporary detention facilities for illegal migrants. The initiative is among the largest grant programs the DOJ has offered, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
But there is a catch—and it is exactly the kind of catch that sanctuary jurisdictions are unlikely to appreciate.
Municipalities seeking the funding must agree to “fully participate” in the federal 287(g) partnership, allowing local law enforcement agencies to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal immigration authorities.
In other words, Washington is no longer willing to simply send money to communities while local officials refuse to cooperate with the federal government on immigration enforcement.
That should not be controversial.
“This Department of Justice is committed to ensuring Biden-era border disasters never happen again,” Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said. “We are proud to once again champion law and order.”
The grant description says the funding can be used for locating and apprehending people who are unlawfully present in the United States and have also committed violations of federal, state or local law.
The DOJ also says some funds could ultimately flow back to the federal government as reimbursement for expenses incurred when federal law enforcement resources are required to address crime or public disorder associated with immigration enforcement operations.
And municipalities have considerable flexibility in deciding how to spend the money.
So far, 181 cities have applied.
The program was established through President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Budget Bill” and provides up to $3 billion through September 2028.
For local law enforcement agencies facing real costs from immigration-related crime, detention and enforcement, the proposition is difficult to ignore.
Patrick Royal, a spokesman for the National Sheriffs’ Association, put it bluntly.
“I can’t see why people wouldn’t take advantage of this opportunity to get more funding.”
That may be the simplest explanation of the entire program.
For years, communities were expected to absorb the consequences of Washington’s immigration failures while being told that federal immigration enforcement was someone else’s problem. The Trump administration is flipping that arrangement on its head: If local governments want federal assistance, they need to cooperate with the federal government whose laws they are helping enforce.
Common sense strikes again.
The message from DOJ is unmistakable. Federal immigration law is not optional, and local taxpayers should not be forced to shoulder the financial consequences of a border crisis created in Washington.
The Trump administration is putting federal dollars behind a basic America First principle: secure the border, enforce the law, support the police, and make government accountable for the consequences of its policies.
After years of border chaos, Washington is finally sending resources in the direction of enforcement—not away from it.
