WASHINGTON (AP) — A ballooning Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget. Hiring bonuses of $50,000. Swelling ranks of ICE officers, to 22,000, in an expanding national force bigger than most police departments in America.
President Donald Trump promised the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history, but achieving his goal wouldn't have been possible without funding from the big tax and spending cuts bill passed by Republicans in Congress, and it's fueling unprecedented immigration enforcement actions in cities like Minneapolis and beyond.
The GOP’s big bill is “supercharging ICE,” one budget expert said, in ways that Americans may not fully realize — and that have only just begun.
“I just don’t think people have a sense of the scale,” said Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the Center for American Progress and a former adviser to the Biden administration's Office of Management and Budget.
"We’re looking at ICE in a way we’ve never seen before,” he said.
As the Republican president marks the first year of his second term, the immigration enforcement and removal operation that has been a cornerstone of his domestic and foreign policy agenda is rapidly transforming into something else — a national law enforcement presence with billions upon billions of dollars in new spending from U.S. taxpayers.
The shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis showed the alarming reach of the new federalized force, sparking unrelenting protests against the military-styled officers seen going door to door to find and detain immigrants. Amid the outpouring of opposition, Trump revived threats to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell the demonstrations and the U.S. Army has 1,500 soldiers ready to deploy.
But Trump’s own public approval rating on immigration, one of his signature issues, has slipped since he took office, according to an AP-NORC poll.
“Public sentiment is everything," said Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez, D-N.Y., at a press conference at the Capitol with lawmakers supporting legislation to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Americans, she said, are upset at what they are seeing. “They didn’t sign on for this,” she said.
To be sure, illegal crossings into the U.S. at the Mexico border have fallen to historic lows under Trump, a remarkable shift from just a few years ago when President Joe Biden's Democratic administration allowed millions of people to temporarily enter the U.S. as they adjudicated their claims to stay.
Yet as enforcement moves away from the border, the newly hired army of immigration officers swarming city streets with aggressive tactics — in Los Angeles, Chicago and elsewhere — is something not normally seen in the U.S.
Armed and masked law enforcement officers are being witnessed smashing car windows, yanking people from vehicles and chasing and wrestling others to the ground and hauling them away — images playing out in endless loops on TVs and other screens.
And it’s not just ICE. A long list of supporting agencies, including federal, state and local police and sheriff’s offices, are entering into contract partnerships with Homeland Security to conduct immigration enforcement operations in communities around the nation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has warned Democrats that this is "no time to be playing games” by stirring up the opposition to immigration enforcement officers in Minneapolis and other places.
“They need to get out of the way and allow federal law enforcement to do its duty," Johnson said at the Capitol.
Noem has said the immigration enforcement officers are acting lawfully. The department insists it's targeting criminals in the actions, what officials call the worst of the worst immigrants.
However, reports show that non-criminals and U.S. citizens are also being forcibly detained by immigration officers. The Supreme Court last year lifted a ban on using race alone in the immigration stops.
Trump last month called Somali immigrants “garbage,” comments that echoed his past objections to immigrants from certain countries.
The Trump administration has set a goal of 100,000 detentions a day, about three times what's typical, with 1 million deportations a year.
With Republican control of Congress, the impeachment of Noem or any other Trump official is not a viable political option for Democrats, who would not appear to have the vote tally even among their own ranks.
In fact, even if Congress wanted to curtail Trump’s immigration operations — by threatening to shut down the government, for example — it would be difficult to stop the spend.
What Trump called the “big, beautiful bill” is essentially on autopilot through 2029, the year he's scheduled to finish his term and leave office.
The legislation essentially doubled annual Homeland Security funding, adding $170 billion to be used over four years. Of that, ICE, which typically receives about $10 billion a year, was provided $30 billion for operations and $45 billion for detention facilities.
“The first thing that comes to mind is spending on this level is typically done on the military,” said Kathleen Bush-Joseph, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “Trump is militarizing immigration enforcement.”
Ahead, Congress will consider a routine annual funding package for Homeland Security unveiled Tuesday, or risk a partial shutdown Jan. 30. A growing group of Democratic senators and the Congressional Progressive Caucus have had enough. They say they won't support additional funds without significant changes.
Lawmakers are considering various restrictions on ICE operations, including limiting arrests around hospitals, courthouses, churches and other sensitive locations and ensuring that officers display proper identification and refrain from wearing face masks.
“I think ICE needs to be totally torn down,” said Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., on CNN over the weekend.
“People want immigration enforcement that goes after criminals,” he said. And not what he called this “goon squad.”
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has begun tapping the new money at its disposal. The department informed Congress it has obligated roughly $58 billion — most of that, some $37 billion, for border wall construction, according to a person familiar with the private assessment but unauthorized to discuss it.
The Department of Homeland Security said its massive recruitment campaign blew past its 10,000-person target to bring in 12,000 new hires, more than doubling the force to 22,000 officers, in a matter of months.
“The good news is that thanks to the Big Beautiful Bill that President Trump signed, we have an additional 12,000 ICE officers and agents on the ground across the country,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a December statement.
The department also announced it had arrested and deported about 600,000 people. It also said 1.9 million other people had “voluntarily self-deported" since January 2025, when Trump took office.
ICE agents make use of the facilities at a gas station, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Federal officers stand outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building during a protest on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
DAVOS, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 21, 2026--
UK-based AI infrastructure and solutions provider, Sovereign AI (S-AI) has selected Accenture (NYSE: ACN), and Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: PLTR) to help it build and scale next-generation AI data centers across EMEA. The initiative is designed to deliver a resilient sovereign AI foundation for commercial and government sectors.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260120148370/en/
S-AI aims to address the rapidly expanding need for advanced AI infrastructure as a critical foundation for industrial growth and national security. This collaboration with Accenture and Palantir will help accelerate the development and deployment of its Dell AI Factory- and NVIDIA-powered sovereign-grade AI capabilities, supporting economic security and digital resiliency across EMEA, with plans to expand into APAC. According to recent Accenture research, 60% of European organizations plan to increase investments in sovereign AI technology over the next two years.
“S-AI is committed to building the next generation industrial base for AI and by investing in robust, scalable data centers in the UK and EMEA, we are poised to provide a solution which future proofs our customers for the requirements of the global digital economy,” said Bradd Lewis, CEO of Sovereign AI. “We’re committed to leading the next wave of enterprise AI, supported by resilient, integrated infrastructure and power solutions for critical sectors. Our transformative collaboration with Accenture and Palantir, powered by the Dell AI Factory and NVIDIA AI infrastructure, will help us strategically expand and scale our business for the benefit of our mutual customers.”
The initiative will help drive the construction and management of new generation, transmission and compute capacity, enabling the creation of advanced capabilities and hyperscale NVIDIA-powered data centers built for AI leveraging the Dell AI Factory. These centers can support the demands of AI workloads and help secure high-performing operations for regulated industries. Chain Reaction, Palantir’s operating system for AI infrastructure, will orchestrate this buildout from power generation to compute deployment.
Palantir will provide the software to operate and manage the critical infrastructure, while Accenture will lead digital transformation, operational excellence, and large-scale delivery, including sales and engineering support. The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA will serve as the secure, high-performance backbone essential for sovereign environments. This will help accelerate the delivery of S-AI’s sovereign-grade AI solutions, focused on secure, compliant and high-performing operations.
Bryan E. Rich, senior managing director at Accenture, added, “This collaboration will forge a new model for managing the expansion of safe, secure and resilient AI infrastructure to address the growing need for national and economic security across key markets. Together, Accenture and Palantir will help S-AI set a new standard for AI infrastructure, which can position EMEA at the forefront of industrial innovation and national security.”
“Palantir Chain Reaction software is a key advantage in the buildout of AI infrastructure—not only as an operating system for business expansion, but also for delivering enterprise AI capabilities to key verticals,” said Kevin Kawasaki, global head of business development at Palantir.
“Digital and economic security now require sovereign AI designed for efficient inference,” said Justin Boitano, vice president, Enterprise AI Platforms at NVIDIA. “S-AI’s collaboration with Accenture, Dell Technologies, Palantir, and NVIDIA sets the blueprint for deploying AI factories engineered to generate tokens at scale—and turn efficient inference directly into revenue.”
“The concept of sovereign AI isn't just about compute power—it's about ensuring entities maintain full control and ownership of their AI capabilities in an era where data sovereignty and security are non-negotiable,” said Arun Narayanan, senior vice president, Compute and Networking at Dell Technologies. “The Dell AI Factory with NVIDIA gives S-AI and its customers the performance they need to train and deploy advanced AI models while helping them meet the most stringent regulatory and security requirements across EMEA. This is the foundation for AI that organizations can truly own and control.”
This project with S-AI follows the launch of the Accenture Palantir Business Group. The business group is dedicated to helping accelerate the delivery of advanced AI and data solutions for global clients.
About Sovereign AI
Sovereign AI is committed to being the global Sovereign AI champion, by delivering purpose-built capabilities for Government, Defence, Healthcare, and Finance, enabling ethical AI deployment where security is non-negotiable and insuring sovereignty from the soil to the token. More information is available at s-ai.com.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading solutions and services company that helps the world’s leading enterprises reinvent by building their digital core and unleashing the power of AI to create value at speed across the enterprise, bringing together the talent of our approximately 784,000 people, our proprietary assets and platforms, and deep ecosystem relationships. Our strategy is to be the reinvention partner of choice for our clients and to be the most client-focused, AI-enabled, great place to work in the world. Through our Reinvention Services we bring together our capabilities across strategy, consulting, technology, operations, Song and Industry X with our deep industry expertise to create and deliver solutions and services for our clients. Our purpose is to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity, and we measure our success by the 360° value we create for all our stakeholders. Visit us at accenture.com.
About Palantir
Foundational software of tomorrow. Delivered today. Additional information is available at palantir.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements in this news release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “likely,” “anticipates,” “aspires,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “projects,” “believes,” “estimates,” “positioned,” “outlook,” “goal,” “target” and similar expressions are used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance nor promises that goals or targets will be met, and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. These risks include, without limitation, that the partnership might not achieve its anticipated benefits and risks and uncertainties related to the development and use of AI, including advanced AI, could harm our business, damage our reputation or give rise to legal or regulatory action, as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the “Risk Factors” heading in Accenture plc’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this news release speak only as of the date they were made, and Accenture undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements made in this news release or to conform such statements to actual results or changes in Accenture’s expectations .
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements may relate to, but are not limited to, Palantir's expectations regarding the amount and the terms of the contract and the expected benefits of Palantir's software platforms. Forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified. Forward-looking statements are based on information available at the time those statements are made and were based on current expectations as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management as of that time with respect to future events. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond Palantir's control. These risks and uncertainties include the ability to meet the unique needs of customers; the failure of Palantir's platforms to satisfy customers or perform as desired; the frequency or severity of any software and implementation errors; Palantir's platforms’ reliability; and customers' ability to modify or terminate the contract. Additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties is included in the filings Palantir makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time. Except as required by law, Palantir does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise.
UK-based AI infrastructure and solutions provider, Sovereign AI (S-AI) has selected Accenture, and Palantir Technologies Inc. to help it build and scale next-generation AI data centers across EMEA.
