While debate focused on immigration enforcement and deportation, the bill also allocates $3.45 billion for border security technology programs tied to an ongoing U.S. Customs and Border Protection modernization effort, requiring 434 large-scale inspection systems nationwide.

At the center of that funding is a provision directing CBP to procure and integrate new non-intrusive inspection equipment and "associated civil works" to help combat narcotics trafficking at ports of entry and along the southwest, northern and maritime borders.

The legislation also funds border surveillance technology, biometric entry-exit systems, air and marine operations upgrades and related security initiatives through fiscal 2029.

The legislation also provides $31.1 billion for ICE activities through 2029, including funding for facility maintenance and sustainment, fleet maintenance and sustainment, information technology systems and operational support.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), a principal architect of the legislation, said after passage that the measure provides border agencies with long-term funding certainty.

"The Secure America Act is headed to President Trump's desk, and our brave men and women … finally have the funding and certainty they need to do their jobs," Arrington said in a statement.

The legislation does not specifically appropriate money for new border wall construction, new ports of entry or major stand-alone building programs, but federal oversight documents show the inspection technologies funded under the bill have substantial physical infrastructure requirements.

Technology Deployment Carries Infrastructure Demands

According to a September 2025 Government Accountability Office review, CBP's deployment process for large-scale non-intrusive inspection systems includes site planning, civil works design, construction, equipment installation and testing. 

Preparatory work can include concrete placement, electrical conduit installation and other supporting infrastructure needed before scanning equipment can be deployed.

GAO found that some ports of entry require more extensive modifications, including image-review command centers, power connections, data connections, traffic-flow redesign and other site upgrades.

A Congressional Budget Office analysis of earlier legislation expanding non-intrusive inspection programs similarly found that many land ports of entry would require capital improvements—including roadwork and new facilities—before large-scale scanning systems could be installed. CBO estimated those improvements would cost roughly $98 million.

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Inspection Program Faces Cost, Space Constraints

The bill's technology funding builds on a CBP inspection program that has received more than $2 billion since 2019 to deploy additional scanning systems at land ports of entry. The systems allow passenger vehicles, commercial trucks and rail traffic to be screened for narcotics and other contraband without requiring manual inspections.

That deployment effort is already underway at major crossings across the Southwest, including Calexico East and Otay Mesa in California; Nogales and San Luis in Arizona; Santa Teresa in New Mexico; and El Paso, Laredo, Hidalgo, Pharr, Brownsville, Eagle Pass and Ysleta in Texas.

The program's physical requirements have also become a significant cost driver. GAO found that deployment expenses have exceeded original estimates due to construction challenges, site-specific conditions and infrastructure needs.

Installation costs for some commercial-vehicle scanning systems have risen from initial estimates of roughly $1.3 million per system to more than $4 million, with some future installations projected to cost substantially more.

The report also identified ongoing infrastructure challenges at some of the nation's busiest crossings. San Ysidro and Otay Mesa in California, and the DeConcini crossing in Nogales, Ariz., account for some of the highest passenger-vehicle volumes on the southern border, but CBP has not yet determined how to overcome space limitations that complicate installation of large-scale scanning systems.

Democrats uniformly opposed the measure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said the legislation would "waste $70 billion in taxpayer money to give a blank check to ICE without any guardrails, any oversight, any accountability."

The scale of the effort remains substantial. As of February 2025, CBP had deployed 52 of 153 planned large-scale inspection systems, according to GAO, while 101 remained in planning, design or construction.