Justice Department’s $3 Billion ‘Biden’ Grants Come With an Immigration Catch

Justice Department officials are distributing up to $3 billion in grants to states and municipalities in what they portray as an effort to help jurisdictions recoup money they lost because of the President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.

The grants — called the Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide (“BIDEN”) Program — represent one of the biggest pots of money the Justice Department has ever distributed. It can be used to hire police officers, buy technology or build temporary detention centers for undocumented immigrants.

The money also comes with one big condition: Municipalities that receive it must agree to partner with the Department of Homeland Security in carrying out the president’s aggressive immigration policies.

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The Justice Department’s grant announcement says the funds are, among other things, intended for “locating and apprehending aliens who have committed a crime under federal, state, or local law, in addition to being unlawfully present in the United States.”

While the aim of the money is to bolster immigration enforcement, the money can be used for everyday law enforcement operations, including hiring police officers, training personnel and equipment.

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The BIDEN program was established and named by the One Big Beautiful Bill, Trump’s signature legislation passed last summer. The law allocates more than $3 billion through September 2028 for the new grants, and the Justice Department issued a call for applications last month, announcing an initial deadline of July 17, with more funding rounds to come.

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To receive a grant, a city must “fully participate” in the 287(g) program, which teams up local police with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It also must participate in the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) or other Justice Department enforcement efforts.

The 287(g) program empowers local police to arrest undocumented immigrants, but its most common use is enabling them to detain these immigrants in local jails for extended periods while waiting for ICE to take custody.

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