House passes DHS spending bill after removing troublesome guest worker expansion

Last night, the House of Representatives approved legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through the end of the fiscal year, which ends on September 30. The bill was approved mostly along party lines, 220-207, with seven Democrats joining all but one Republican in supporting the bill.

Last summer, the House Appropriations Committee approved several troubling amendments to the original version of the bill. These amendments would have:

• Increased the number of H-2B non-agricultural guest worker visas from 66,000 per year to more than 238,000;
• Added eligibility for dairy and other year-round workers to the unlimited H-2A visa program;
• Added carnival workers, including concession stand operators, to the P visa program, which is reserved for internationally recognized athletes, entertainers, and artists; and 
• Placed limitations on DHS's ability to enforce immigration laws, including by restricting where enforcement could be carried out. 

Since the committee markup, the Immigration Accountability Project has led a coalition of groups working to remove these anti-America First amendments from the DHS bill. We're thrilled to report that the troublesome amendments were removed from the bill before last night’s passage. Unfortunately, a provision remains that allows the Secretary of DHS to double H-2B visas for the fiscal year. Recently, DHS announced that it would only increase H-2B visas for the year by 35,000, or about half of what the amendment allows.

House Speaker Mike Johnson will now package together the DHS spending bill with three other spending bills the House passed yesterday, and send them as a single “minibus” to the Senate for its approval. This marks the first time in decades that the House has passed all 12 annual appropriations bills. The Senate is hoping to pass them, as well, before federal funding expires at the end of next week.

Border Enforcement at Historic Lows

According to new data from DHS, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in December encountered 30,698 illegal aliens at all ports of entry and at the border. Of those, only 6,478 were illegal border crossers apprehended by the Border Patrol—a 96 percent reduction compared to December 2024.

Over the first full quarter of FY2026 (October-December), CBP encountered just 91,603 illegal aliens in total, including the border and ports of entry. It’s the lowest number of nationwide encounters recorded in a single quarter since DHS began tracking encounters.

The Trump Administration's efforts along the border have been historic, and it's important to remember that the record low number of encounters was achieved entirely through executive action. Unless Congress takes action to codify the administration's actions by passing the Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2 in the last Congress), a future administration can quickly reverse the progress. 

Reps. Moore and Pfluger move into Immigration Rankings Top 50

Reps. Riley Moore (R-WV) and August Pfluger (R-TX) both moved up 25 spots this week in IAP Action's Congressional Immigration Rankings, putting both Members in the Top 50 in the House.

Both Reps. Moore and Pfluger cosponsored two bills rated as Key Legislation by IAP Action. Rep. Moore cosponsored H.R. 2315, the Fairness for High Skilled Americans Act, which would eliminate the Optional Practical Training Program, and H.R. 2705, the Nuclear Family Priority Act, which would end Chain Migration. Rep. Pfluger also cosponsored the Nuclear Family Priority Act and H.R. 1958, the Birthright Citizenship Act, which would end birthright citizenship. Additionally, he cosponsored H.R. 1958, the Deporting Fraudsters Act.

Meanwhile, a pair of Republican Congressmen fell dramatically in the rankings after cosponsoring Rep. Maria Salazar's (R-FL) mass amnesty bill. Reps. Neal Dunn (R-FL) and Nick LaLota (R-NY) cosponsored H.R. 4393, the Dignity Act, which would grant amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Reps. Dunn and LaLota fell 43 and 41 spots, respectively, in the House Immigration Rankings.

See the updated Congressional Immigration Rankings at IAPAction.com.

Immigration Articles

Fox News: White House, DHS push back on claims ICE targeted 5-year-old in Minnesota, say child was 'abandoned'

After viral images swept the internet this week supposedly showing that ICE “detained” a child, the Department of Homeland Security set the record straight. "Here’s the reality: ICE officers work heroically with the utmost professionalism to make American communities safer. In this instance, they stayed with a child who was abandoned by his father—an illegal alien from Ecuador."

Center for Immigration Studies: The Economic and Cultural Challenges of Afghan Immigration

Our friends at CIS have released a new study showing that the rapid growth of the Afghan immigrant population in the United States has led to significant economic and cultural challenges, including high rates of poverty and welfare use, low levels of education and English proficiency, and potential concerns regarding assimilation and national security.

Next Week

Now that the House has passed the final appropriations bills, Members have left town until February 2. The Senate will return on Monday, after a week-long recess, and (presumably) pass the remaining government funding bills that the House passed over the last two weeks.