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By LISA MASCARO, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan visited Capitol Hill just weeks after Inauguration Day, with other administration officials and a singular message: They needed money for the White House’s border security and mass deportation agenda.

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By summer, Congress delivered.

The Republican Party’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts that Trump signed into law July 4 included what’s arguably the biggest boost of funds yet to the Department of Homeland Security — nearly $170 billion, almost double its annual budget.

The staggering sum is powering the nation’s sweeping new Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, delivering gripping scenes of people being pulled off city streets and from job sites across the nation — the cornerstone of Trump’s promise for the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. Homeland Security confirmed over the weekend ICE is working to set up detention sites at certain military bases.

“We’re getting them out at record numbers,” Trump said at the White House bill signing ceremony. “We have an obligation to, and we’re doing it.”

Money flows, and so do questions

The crush of new money is setting off alarms in Congress and beyond, raising questions from lawmakers in both major political parties who are expected to provide oversight. The bill text provided general funding categories — almost $30 billion for ICE officers, $45 billion for detention facilities, $10 billion for the office of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — but few policy details or directives. Homeland Security recently announced $50,000 ICE hiring bonuses.

And it’s not just the big bill’s fresh infusion of funds fueling the president’s agenda of 1 million deportations a year.

In the months since Trump took office, his administration has been shifting as much as $1 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other accounts to pay for immigration enforcement and deportation operations, lawmakers said.

“Your agency is out of control,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Noem during a Senate committee hearing in the spring.

FILE – A protestor holds a sign during a demonstration organized by the Service Employees International Union protesting ICE detentions, in New Orleans, July 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

The senator warned that Homeland Security would “go broke” by July.

Noem quickly responded that she always lives within her budget.

But Murphy said later in a letter to Homeland Security, objecting to its repurposing funds, that ICE was being directed to spend at an “indefensible and unsustainable rate to build a mass deportation army,” often without approval from Congress.

This past week, the new Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Andrew Garbarino of New York, along with a subcommittee chairman, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, requested a briefing from Noem on the border security components of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, or OBBBA, which included $46 billion over the next four years for Trump’s long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall.

“We write today to understand how the Department plans to outlay this funding to deliver a strong and secure homeland for years to come,” the GOP lawmakers said in a letter to the homeland security secretary, noting border apprehensions are at record lows.

“We respectfully request that you provide Committee staff with a briefing on the Department’s plan to disburse OBBBA funding,” they wrote, seeking a response by Aug. 22.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Associated Press the department is in daily discussions with the committee “to honor all briefing requests including the spend plan for the funds allocated” through the new law.

“ICE is indeed pursuing all available options to expand bedspace capacity,” she said. “This process does include housing detainees at certain military bases, including Fort Bliss.”

Deportations move deep into communities

All together, it’s what observers on and off Capitol Hill see as a fundamental shift in immigration policy — enabling DHS to reach far beyond the U.S. southern border and deep into communities to conduct raids and stand up detention facilities as holding camps for immigrants.

The Defense Department, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies are being enlisted in what Kathleen Bush-Joseph, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, calls a “whole of government” approach.

FILE – Federal agents escort a family to a transport bus after they were detained following an appearance at immigration court, July 22, 2025, in San Antonio, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

“They’re orienting this huge shift,” Bush-Joseph said, as deportation enforcement moves “inward.”

The flood of cash comes when Americans’ views on immigration are shifting. Polling showed 79% of U.S. adults say immigration is a “good thing” for the country, having jumped substantially from 64% a year ago, according to Gallup. Only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say immigration is a bad thing right now.

At the same time, Trump’s approval rating on immigration has slipped. According to a July AP-NORC poll, 43% of U.S. adults said they approved of his handling of immigration, down slightly from 49% in March.

Americans are watching images of often masked officers arresting college students, people at Home Depot lots, parents, workers and a Tunisian musician. Stories abound of people being whisked off to detention facilities, often without allegations of wrongdoing beyond being unauthorized to remain in the U.S.

A new era of detention centers

Detention centers are being stood up, from “Alligator Alcatraz” in Florida to the repurposed federal prison at Leavenworth, Kansas, and the proposed new “Speedway Slammer” in Indiana. Flights are ferrying migrants not just home or to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison but far away to Africa and beyond.

Homan has insisted in recent interviews those being detained and deported are the “worst of the worst,” and he dismissed as “garbage” the reports showing many of those being removed have not committed violations beyond their irregular immigration status.

FILE – White House border czar Tom Homan speaks with reporters at the White House, Aug. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

“There’s no safe haven here,” Homan said recently outside the White House. “We’re going to do exactly what President Trump has promised the American people he’d do.”

Back in February, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Budget Committee, emerged from their private meeting saying Trump administration officials were “begging for money.”

As Graham got to work, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and a leading deficit hawk, proposed an alternative border package, at $39 billion, a fraction of the size.

But Paul’s proposal was quickly dismissed. He was among a handful of GOP lawmakers who joined all Democrats in voting against the final tax and spending cuts bill.

By JESSE BEDAYN, Associated Press

Texas Republicans will again try to convene the state Legislature Monday for a vote on redrawing congressional maps in their party’s favor, an effort that already sparked a national political brawl and prompted Democratic lawmakers to leave the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need.

The Republican majority is seeking to redraw five U.S. House districts at President Donald Trump’s urging as he tries to avoid a replay of the 2018 midterms. Those elections installed a new Democratic majority in the U.S. House that stymied the president’s agenda and twice impeached him.

Now, Democratic-controlled states including California, New York and Illinois are threatening to retaliate against Texas and Trump by proposing their own redistricting, putting the nation on the brink of a tit-for-tat overhaul of congressional boundaries that are typically redrawn only once a decade.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he’ll call lawmakers back to the Statehouse again and again until enough Democrats show up to reach the 100-member threshold required to vote on the bill. Democratic leaders in other states are planning out their retaliatory redistricting plans if Abbott succeeds.

FILE – Empty chairs belonging to House Democrats remain empty during session convocation in protest to a redistricting map in the State Capitol, Aug. 5, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez, file)

“Texas, knock it off. We’ll knock it off. Let’s get back to governing,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on “Fox News Sunday.”

As for the Democratic lawmakers who bolted from Texas — some of whom have been appearing alongside the likes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at news conferences — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking the state’s Supreme Court to remove some of them from office or give them a 48-hour warning to return.

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“If they show back up in the state of Texas, they will be arrested and taken to the Capitol,” said Abbott on “Fox News Sunday.”

When pressed about blue states’ threats to retaliate — such as Newsom’s proposal to effectiveely cut five GOP-held seats in California — Abbott argued that many had already squeezed the juice out of their gerrymandering and would be hard-pressed to push it further.

Democratic leaders say Abbott’s plans are nothing more than a power grab.

“They know that they’re going to lose in 2026 the Congress, and so they’re trying to steal seats,” Pritzker said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Past attempts by Texas Democrats to halt votes by leaving the state were typically unsuccessful, and several of the blue states face more hurdles to redistricting than Texas does.

California, for example, has an independent commission that runs redistricting after each decade’s census. Changes require approval from both voters and state lawmakers, who have said they plan to call a special election in November to set the process in motion.

By WAFAA SHURAFA, SAM METZ and SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday defended a new military offensive in Gaza that’s more sweeping than previously announced, declaring in the face of growing condemnation at home and abroad that Israel “has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.”

Even as more Israelis express concern over the 22-month war, Netanyahu said the security Cabinet last week instructed the dismantling of Hamas strongholds not only in Gaza City but also in the “central camps” and Muwasi. A source familiar with the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, confirmed that Israel plans it in both areas.

The camps — sheltering well over a half-million displaced people, according to the U.N. — had not been part of Israel’s announcement Friday. It was not clear why, though Netanyahu faced criticism this weekend within his ruling coalition that targeting Gaza City was not enough. Netanyahu said there would be “safe zones,” but such designated areas have been bombed in the past.

Late Sunday, heavy bombardment was reported in Gaza City. Shortly before midnight local time, broadcaster Al Jazeera said correspondent Anas al-Sharif was killed in a strike. Rami Mohanna, administrative director at the nearby Shifa Hospital, said the strike hit a tent for Al Jazeera journalists outside the hospital’s walls. Along with al-Sharif, three other journalists and a driver were killed.

Israel’s military confirmed it, asserting al-Sharif had “posed as a journalist” and alleging he was with Hamas. Al-Sharif had denied having any political affiliations. The Committee to Protect Journalists last month said it was gravely concerned for his safety and said he was a “targeted by an Israeli military smear campaign.”

Netanyahu spoke with Trump about plan

Netanyahu’s office late Sunday said he had spoken with U.S. President Donald Trump about the plan and thanked him for his “steadfast support.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference at the Prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP)

Rejecting starvation in Gaza as well as a “global campaign of lies,” Netanyahu spoke to foreign media just before an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, a platform for outrage but little action on the war.

“Our goal is not to occupy Gaza, our goal is to free Gaza,” Netanyahu asserted. The goals, he said, include demilitarizing the territory, the Israeli military having “overriding security control” and a non-Israeli civilian administration in charge.

Israel wants to increase the number of aid distribution sites in Gaza, he said, but in a later briefing to local media, he asserted: “There is no hunger. There was no hunger. There was a shortage, and there was certainly no policy of starvation.”

Netanyahu also said he has directed Israel’s military to “bring in more foreign journalists” — which would be a striking development, as they haven’t been allowed into Gaza beyond military embeds during the war.

He again blamed many of Gaza’s problems on Hamas, including civilian deaths, destruction and aid shortages. “Hamas still has thousands of armed terrorists,” he asserted, adding that Palestinians are “begging” to be freed from them.

Hamas responded with a lengthy statement that summed up Netanyahu’s remarks as “blatant lies.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

U.S. defends Israel at Security Council meeting

The United States defended Israel, saying it has the right to decide what’s best for its security. It called allegations of genocide in Gaza false.

The U.S. has veto power at the council and can block proposed actions there.

Demonstrators march near the border with Gaza calling for the release of all hostages held by Hamas and for an end to the ongoing war, in southern Israel, Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Other council members, and U.N. officials, expressed alarm. China called the “collective punishment” of people in Gaza unacceptable. Russia warned against a “reckless intensification of hostilities.”

“This is no longer a looming hunger crisis; this is starvation,” said Ramesh Rajasingham with the U.N. humanitarian office. “Humanitarian conditions are beyond horrific. We have frankly run out of words to describe it.”

Israel faces growing action even by its closest allies. Netanyahu said Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany had “buckled under” the growing international criticism by stopping exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza. Merz, for his part, told public broadcaster ARD that Germany and Israel were talking “very critically” but Berlin’s overall policies of friendship haven’t changed.

More Palestinians killed as they seek aid

At least 31 Palestinians were killed while seeking aid in Gaza, hospitals and witnesses said. The Associated Press spoke to witnesses of gunfire in the Israeli-controlled Morag and Netzarim corridors and the Teina area in the south. All accused Israeli forces of firing at crowds trying to reach food distributions or waiting for convoys.

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Fifteen people were killed while waiting for trucks near the Morag corridor that separates the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, according to Nasser hospital.

The situation is a “death trap,” said Jamal al-Laweh, who said Israeli forces opened fire there. “But I have no other choice to feed the kids.”

Six were killed while waiting for aid in northern Gaza near the Zikim crossing, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and Shifa hospital.

In central Gaza, witnesses said they heard warning shots before fire was aimed toward crowds trying to reach a distribution site operated by the Israeli-backed and U.S.-funded Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The AP could not independently confirm who fired. Awda hospital said four people were killed by Israeli gunfire.

Six other aid-seekers were killed while trying to reach GHF sites in Khan Younis and Rafah, Nasser hospital said.

The GHF sites opened in May as an alternative to the U.N.-run aid system, but operations have been marred by deaths and chaos.

Responding to AP inquiries, the GHF media office said: “There were no incidents at or near our sites today.” Israel’s military said there were no incidents involving troops near central Gaza aid sites.

Hunger death toll among children hits 100

Israel’s air and ground offensive has displaced most Palestinians and pushed the territory toward famine. Two Palestinian children died of malnutrition-related causes on Saturday, bringing the toll among children to 100 since the war began.

At least 117 adults have died of malnutrition-related causes since June, when the ministry started to count them.

The hunger toll is in addition to the ministry’s war toll of 61,400 Palestinians. The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals, doesn’t distinguish between fighters or civilians, but says around half of the dead have been women and children. The U.N. and independent experts consider it the most reliable source on war casualties.

Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.