That has changed as Democrats are trying to combat the “cruel and illegal excesses of the Trump administration,” said Lucas Guttentag, a professor at Stanford Law School and one of the nation’s leading experts on immigration law. Trump’s first term also emphasized expanded enforcement, but Guttentag said the current administration has escalated further, with militarized tactics, contested legal interpretations and efforts to strip legal status from immigrants. “Democrats and many Americans recognize that this is unacceptable, and they want enforcement that respects due process and rejects racial profiling,” Guttentag said.

Guttentag said withholding funding from immigration agencies is one of the few ways “to rein in the policies and practices of this administration,” especially with its “spotty record” in following critical court orders. Last week, the House ended the DHS shutdown with a bill that funds all the agencies except for ICE and parts of CBP, both which received an influx of money last year. Republicans are now pushing legislation that could add roughly $70 billion for immigration enforcement operations through the end of Trump’s second term. “The power of the purse is central when Congress is not satisfied with how the executive branch is conducting itself,” Guttentag said. “It can restrict funding and that is a very effective tool if it’s enacted. Of course, that is a challenge for the Democrats, given that they’re not a majority party.”