Gun sellers have made millions from Trump’s deployment of immigration agents

Firearms companies – faced with plummeting sales to the general public – found a lucrative new opportunity last year: arming President Donald Trump’s immigration operation. 

A Trace analysis of federal spending data found that gun industry revenue ballooned as Department of Homeland Security agents carried out mass federal raids in major cities — and shot people trying to protest or document the agents’ activities. In 2025, weapons manufacturers received a record $120.7 million through DHS contracts, the data shows. That is the highest amount in at least 10 years. Many of the biggest contracts were awarded to companies that supplied firearms, ammunition, and related equipment to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

Among the biggest beneficiaries was Geissele Automatics, a Pennsylvania-based gun seller that supplies rifles to immigration enforcement agents. Geissele raked in $13.1 million in DHS contracts last year — up 400 percent from its previous high in 2023. Geiselle has made no secret of its DHS affiliation: The company’s website features a “Border Patrol” section where civilians can ostensibly purchase the same rifles sold to agents. 

Glock, another major contractor, received more from DHS contracts in 2025 — $8.3 million — than in the previous four years combined. The gunmaker provided CBP agents with 9 mm handguns, repair parts, and accessories, according to federal procurement records. 

The windfall for gun sellers comes as immigration agents face growing scrutiny for their tactics. A December congressional investigation found that agents had “routinely used excessive force” on U.S. citizens since the surge began. The Trace has identified 19 incidents in which immigration agents shot someone — and another 36 incidents in which they held demonstrators, bystanders, or other people at gunpoint under questionable circumstances. In separate shootings this month in Minneapolis, immigration agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 years old, who were observing the agents’ actions. 

“Every single company that has a contract with ICE or CBP should be sitting down with their board right now and making the decision to back out of that contract,” Heidi Altman, vice president for policy at the National Immigration Law Center, told The Trace. Altman accused Homeland Security contractors of being complicit in the “lawlessness and violence” by agents.

Geissele and Glock did not respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration told DHS contractors that the president’s immigration crackdown would be good for business. During an April speech at the 2025 Border Security Expo, an annual trade show, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told contractors that the administration would need to increase spending to facilitate mass deportations. “I think the budget will be more than we ever had,” Homan said.

In subsequent months, as heavily armed immigration agents descended on Los Angeles and Chicago, DHS contractors spent millions lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill. General Dynamics, a Virginia-based corporation whose subsidiary makes ammunition to train ICE recruits, paid lobbyists over $3 million to influence DHS’s 2026 budget, along with the budgets of other federal agencies, according to federal disclosures reviewed by The Trace. Noble Supply and Logistics, a smaller contractor that sells night-vision equipment, paid lobbyists at least $60,000 last year to shape DHS and Defense Department appropriations. General Dynamics declined to comment, and Noble Supply did not respond to The Trace’s inquiries.

In July, Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which nearly tripled ICE’s overall budget and gave DHS an extra $165 billion to use before the president’s term ends in 2029. 

ICE now has roughly $85 billion at its disposal — more than the budget of the Justice Department, which includes the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals Service. 

The latest bipartisan spending bill, which was passed by the House last week, would keep ICE’s funding mostly unchanged. “Congress is giving the Trump administration and its allies everything they need to realize the president’s goal of staging the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States,” said William C. Banks, a national security expert and professor of law and public policy at Syracuse University. 

On January 24, hours after Pretti’s killing, Senate Democrats pledged to withhold DHS funding until the department implements reforms. DHS’s existing appropriations budget runs out on January 30, and Senate Republicans will need the support of at least seven Democrats to extend the funding and avert a partial government shutdown. 

Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said the increased DHS spending has resulted in “draconian” displays of force unlike anything she has seen in her 25-plus years of practicing immigration law. She and her colleagues have witnessed ICE and CBP officers, often outfitted in military-grade equipment and firearms, show up at courthouses, schools, and places of worship. 

Meanwhile, support for immigration enforcement has weakened. A YouGov poll this week found that nearly half of Americans support abolishing ICE, up 19 percentage points from June. Realmuto attributed the change to the violence perpetrated by agents in Minneapolis. “The tragedy of the Minneapolis shootings is a turning point for a lot of Americans, including people who maybe were not following news of these immigration raids,” Realmuto said. “It made people realize ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics are being used against U.S. citizens, not just immigrants.”