Congress gives $69 billion to arrest and remove people without legal status.
S. 2 — Secure America Act · Filed by Lindsey Graham (R-SC) · Introduced May 20, 2026 · Signed
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The law gives $69.545 billion through 2029 to border and removal agencies. It pays for more border officers and holding centers. It pays for tools to find and arrest people without legal status. It sets aside $350 million for arrests in cities that do not help. It also pays for child abuse investigations and drug stops.
Who it affects
People without legal status and their families face more arrests. Border cities and sanctuary cities see more removal work. Companies that build border tools and run holding centers get money.
One thing to notice
The law requires $350 million for arrests in cities that refuse to help federal agents.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- May 20, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on the Budget. Original measure reported to Senate by Senator Graham. Without written report”
- Jun 5, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Yea-Nay Vote. 52 - 47. Record Vote Number: 163. (text: CR S2570-2571)”
- Jun 9, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by recorded vote: 214 - 212 (Roll no. 214). (text: CR H4017-4018)”
- Jun 9, 2026 — Sent to president · Congress.gov: “Presented to President”
- Jun 10, 2026 — Signed into law · Congress.gov: “Became Public Law No: 119-98”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
43 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 45 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $12,685,777 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 11 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 99% of bills with any report.
Lindsey Graham, who sponsored the bill, received $990,057 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Amgen Inc — $2,440,000 in 1 report
- American Council of Life Insurers — $2,207,196 in 2 reports
- American Association of Airport Executives — $1,172,100 in 1 report
- Friends Committee on National Legislation — $1,000,000 in 1 report
- Airports Council International -- North America — $775,201 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- people without legal status — People living in the U.S. without government permission to be here.
- sanctuary cities — Cities that limit help to federal removal agents.
- holding — Keeping people in a facility while the government decides what to do.
- removal — The process of sending people out of the country.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (10,651 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 22, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-17.
“Congress gives $69 billion to arrest and remove people without legal status.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2/simple Report an error