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By Billal Rahman
Immigration Reporter
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A nationwide air traffic control outage that grounded flights across the United States has prompted questions about federal spending priorities after Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called on Congress to provide $50 billion to overhaul the system, while critics pointed to tens of billions of dollars allocated to immigration enforcement.
The transportation secretary called for $50 billion in emergency funding to replace air traffic control hardware, software, telecommunications equipment and facilities. He did not provide a detailed breakdown of that figure during Friday’s briefing.
Several Democrats have called for ICE funding to be redirected toward the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other infrastructure, including Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who said some of the additional funding provided to ICE should instead go toward the aviation system.
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"There is a pot of 60 billion extra dollars on top of the regularly appropriated amount for ICE and we should use at least a portion of that money for the FAA," Schatz wrote in a post on X. "We can solve this problem and not spend any additional taxpayer dollars."
Congress provided ICE with $74.85 billion in supplemental funding in 2025, including $45 billion for detention and $29.85 billion for enforcement and related operations. About $61 billion remained unobligated as of June 30, according to Democratic staff on the Senate Budget Committee.
Democrats also won control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections and could seek to rescind unobligated ICE funding after the new Congress takes office in January. Any effort to redirect that money to the FAA would require congressional authorization because agencies cannot simply transfer appropriated funds between accounts.
Newsweek has contacted DHS, DOT and Schatz’s office for comment.
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Critics Point to ICE Funding
Richard Ojeda, the Democratic representative-elect for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District, also called for immigration enforcement money to be used for infrastructure.
“How about we take $50 BILLION from DHS and ICE and put it toward rebuilding America?” Ojeda wrote on X.
David J. Bier of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote that Congress had “wasted the money on ICE,” while author and commentator Hemant Mehta wrote: “Take it from the ICE budget.”
National security analyst Juliette Kayyem criticized Duffy’s presentation of the request and said the White House had already received substantial funding for immigration enforcement.
“This press conference is not assuring the public that the system is safe,” Kayyem wrote on X. “Duffy has lost his plot line. He seems to be holding the public hostage to his money ask. The White House got plenty for ICE. This isn’t Congress fault.”
FAA Funding and the Outage
Duffy said outdated switches and routers became overloaded with data, resulting in inconsistent information. He said the agency did not completely lose radar or communications and was able to bring aircraft down safely.
The immediate problem was repaired and flying was safe, Duffy said, but he warned that similar breakdowns could occur unless aging equipment was replaced.
“This is an emergency,” Duffy said at a press conference on Friday. “What’s more important than having an air traffic control system that actually works?”
The Secretary of Homeland Security said in a press release, “This is a national security risk because our air traffic control system is outdated and it hasn’t been a priority from Congress. This is what happens when Congress kicks the can down the road.”
Earlier Friday, before the outage, Duffy and White House budget director Russell Vought asked lawmakers for $30.1 billion for aviation infrastructure, including $10.1 billion for air traffic control modernization and $18 billion for airport projects.
Congress previously approved $12.5 billion over five years for air traffic control improvements as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a reconciliation law signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025. The funding, available through September 2029, was designated for replacing aging telecommunications and radar systems, constructing and modernizing air traffic control facilities, improving runway safety technology, and upgrading weather and controller training systems.
Could ICE Funding Be Redirected?
The executive branch could not simply move ICE funding from the Department of Homeland Security to the Department of Transportation.
A 2023 Congressional Research Service report says transfers between appropriations accounts are prohibited without specific statutory authority. ICE and the FAA are in different departments, and the 2025 law designated the ICE funding for immigration detention and enforcement.
“Transfers are prohibited unless an agency has specific statutory authorization to do so,” the report says. The restriction is designed to prevent agencies from moving money in ways that conflict with the purposes for which Congress provided it.
Congress could, however, pass legislation rescinding unobligated ICE funds and appropriating the money to the FAA, enact specific transfer authority or provide new aviation funding without offsetting it against ICE’s budget.
The outage comes as the FAA works to replace outdated air traffic control technology, with lawmakers calling for faster modernization.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
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