Gun Industry Made Millions Arming ICE and Border Patrol Agents

Earlier this week, The Trace reported that weapons companies, including Glock and Geissele Automatics, had received a “record” $120 million in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contracts in 2025 to supply Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents with firearms, ammunition, and related gear — ”the highest amount in at least 10 years.”

As The Trace noted, the “windfall for gun sellers” is a direct result of President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” enacted last summer, which “nearly tripled ICE’s budget and gave DHS an extra $165 billion to use before the president’s term ends in 2029.”

DHS funding is now facing heavy scrutiny after ICE and Border Patrol agents shot and killed two American citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37 years old — in two separate incidents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, causing widespread backlash to Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Trace has also identified another 19 incidents in which immigration agents shot people and 36 incidents “in which they held demonstrators, bystanders, or other people at gunpoint under questionable circumstances.”

Arming ICE and Border Patrol Agents

According to The Trace, Glock “received more from DHS contracts in 2025 — $8.3 million — than in the previous four years combined” by providing Border Patrol agents with 9mm pistols, replacement parts, and accessories. A closer look at federal records available on USAspending.gov shows that Glock was awarded another $1.2 million this past month, bringing the company’s total contract value to $9.5 million since Trump returned to office.

A preliminary DHS report noted that Border Patrol agents used Glock pistols to shoot Alex Pretti.

Geissele Automatics was awarded $12.6 million to provide AR-15s, magazines, and replacement parts to ICE and Border Patrol agents last year, a 136-percent increase over its contracts from the previous three years combined.¹Figures obtained from USAspending.gov data. As The Trace noted, Geissele Automatics “has made no secret of its DHS affiliation,” as the company began selling “Border Patrol” AR-15s to civilians last year.

A review of federal procurement data by The Smoking Gun found several other companies that made significant money from ICE and Border Patrol contracts since January 2025.²All data provided by USAspending.gov and limited to ICE and CBP “small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing” contracts. For example, ADS Tactical was awarded $53.4 million to provide sights, silencers, holsters, and tactical gear — much more than the $34.8 million the company received over the previous decade.

Another company, Quantico Tactical, received $16.2 million to provide ICE and Border Patrol agents with gun parts, magazines, handcuffs, “less-lethal chemical munitions,” and other tactical products — almost twice as much as the $9.1 million it received from 2021 through 2024. Axon received $11.8 million to supply Tasers, and United Tactical Systems (UTS) received $1.8 million for pepper spray launchers and munitions.

Over the past year, The Kinetic Group received $11.1 million to provide AR-15 ammunition to Border Patrol personnel, compared to the $19.1 million it was awarded from 2022 to 2024. Gun makers FN and Accuracy International also received $1.1 million and $800,000 in Border Patrol contracts last year to supply less-lethal grenade launchers and bolt-action sniper rifles, respectively.

Finally, Sig Sauer had previously garnered over $32 million in ICE contracts for pistols and related parts between 2005 and 2022, but last year, the company was only awarded $209,634 for red-dot sights. Last July, an internal DHS memo instructed ICE agents to stop using Sig Sauer P320 pistols after reports that the guns could fire without an intentional trigger pull — a claim the company denied in a blog post.

more money, less oversight

Scenes of ICE and Border Patrol agents flooding neighborhoods with military-grade weapons and body armor have become common over the past year. As previously reported on The Smoking Gun, ICE’s recruiting efforts have mirrored the gun industry’s marketing tactics, using militaristic ads and social media posts to attract new agents.

Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, told The Trace that “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.”

Heidi Altman, vice president for policy at the National Immigration Law Center, went a step further. According to The Trace, Atlman “accused Homeland Security contractors of being complicit in the ‘lawlessness and violence’ by agents” and said, “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.”

The surge in ICE and Border Patrol spending has certainly paid off for gun companies, but Trump’s immigration crackdown has benefitted the gun industry in other ways as well. For example, the Trump administration has also pulled personnel away from other federal agencies — including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is tasked with enforcing federal gun laws and overseeing the gun industry — and reassigned them to immigration operations. According to CNN, nearly 80 percent of the ATF’s agents have been reassigned, leading to a precipitous drop in firearm investigations and gun dealer inspections.