Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts cast one of the 50 votes that passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which appropriates $45 billion for single adult alien detention capacity and family residential centers, and in June 2026 he voted for the Secure America Act, which gives ICE and Customs and Border Protection $69.5 billion more. In January 2025 he voted for the Laken Riley Act, which requires ICE to jail immigrants who are only charged with or arrested for certain crimes. He voted against body cameras for immigration agents and against unannounced inspections of a detention center.
Ricketts voted to confirm Kristi Noem and then Markwayne Mullin to run the Department of Homeland Security. On June 10, 2025, Noem's agency carried out its largest Nebraska workplace raid of this administration at Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, where agents detained more than 70 people. Asked about the raid, Ricketts said, "if you're in the country illegally, you're breaking the law."
Pete Ricketts's Votes and Statements on Immigration Enforcement
- Ricketts Cast One of the 50 Votes for the Law With $45 Billion for Immigrant Detention. On July 1, 2025, Pete Ricketts voted yes on H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's tie-breaking vote, so the bill would have failed without his vote. The law appropriates $45 billion for single adult alien detention capacity and family residential centers and $29.85 billion for ICE hiring and removals, available through September 2029. The detention money is a 308 percent increase on an annual basis over ICE's 2024 detention budget, according to the American Immigration Council. ICE detention reached nearly 70,000 people by March 2026, and more than 70% of them do not have criminal convictions, KPBS reported, citing ICE data.
- Ricketts Voted for $69.5 Billion More for ICE and Border Patrol in June 2026. On June 5, 2026, Ricketts voted yes on S. 2, the Secure America Act, which passed 52 to 47 and gives ICE and Customs and Border Protection a total of $69.5 billion dollars until September 30, 2029. In April he had voted to adopt the budget resolution that set up the bill. Together with the 2025 law, Congress has provided nearly a quarter of a trillion dollars to DHS through these two bills, the American Immigration Council found.
- Ricketts Voted for the Laken Riley Act, Which Jails Immigrants Who Are Only Accused of a Crime, in January 2025. On January 20, 2025, Ricketts voted yes on S. 5, the Laken Riley Act, which passed 64 to 35 and became law. It requires ICE to detain an immigrant who is charged with, is arrested for, is convicted of theft, shoplifting or other listed crimes, so a charge is enough. Immigration lawyers told KPBS that immigration judges are using the Laken Riley Act as justification for their detention of people never convicted, including a man held after a county judge dismissed his case in criminal court.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Kristi Noem, Whose Agents Raided an Omaha Meatpacking Plant. On January 25, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security, and on February 5 he said in a statement, "We confirmed Kristi Noem to be Secretary of Homeland Security." On June 10, 2025, Noem's department carried out its largest Nebraska workplace raid of the current presidential administration at Glenn Valley Foods in Omaha, detaining more than 70 workers. During her tenure an ICE officer killed Renee Good, 37, an American citizen, in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026, and the medical examiner listed her death as a homicide; federal officials said she had weaponized her vehicle, though video evidence contradicted that.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm Markwayne Mullin, Under Whom ICE Shootings Continued. On March 23, 2026, Ricketts voted to confirm Markwayne Mullin as secretary of homeland security, by 54 to 45. In July 2026, under Mullin, ICE officers in Houston and Maine shot and killed individuals in their cars, and ICE's own records list 36 deaths in its custody in the 2026 fiscal year.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Immigration Services Director Who Ended Automatic Work-Permit Extensions. On July 15, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Joseph Edlow as director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; he was confirmed 52 to 47. His agency's October 2025 rule ended automatic extensions of work permits for people with pending renewals, which DHS itself wrote would result in temporary lapses in employment authorization and lost compensation to workers. USCIS also froze green card and citizenship cases for people from 39 countries until a court found USCIS's pause on processing cases of individuals from the 39 affected countries was illegal.
- Ricketts Voted to Confirm the Head of the Agency Whose Border Patrol Agents Led City Surges. On June 18, 2025, Ricketts voted to confirm Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, by 51 to 46. The agency's Border Patrol ran high-profile operations in Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans and Minneapolis, and the Border Patrol commander reported bypassing the typical chain of command in which he would report to CBP chief Rodney Scott.
- Ricketts Voted Against Taking Back ICE's Unspent Money in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Ricketts voted no on an amendment to repeal the appropriations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the 2025 law and take back the unspent money. It failed 49 to 51. On April 23, 2026, he also voted against a motion blocking new budget-bill money for an agency that still had unspent money from the 2025 law. Border Patrol agents had killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis six days before the January vote, and immigration agents have killed nine people since January 2025, NPR reported.
- Ricketts Voted Against Body Cameras, Detention Inspections and Penalties for Abusive Contractors in June 2026. During the June 2026 debate on the Secure America Act, Ricketts voted against setting aside money for body-worn cameras on immigration officers, which failed 46 to 53; against stopping payments to detention contractors where DHS finds substantiated misconduct, excessive force, or violations of law or detention standards; and against paying for an unannounced inspection of the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark. The private prison companies that run most detention centers reported a combined $1.4 billion in quarterly revenue in spring 2026.
- Ricketts Voted to Keep a Rule That Makes Immigrant Workers Lose Their Work Permits in April 2026. On April 29, 2026, Ricketts voted no on taking up S.J.Res. 99, which would have overturned the USCIS rule ending automatic extensions of work permits for people with pending renewals. It failed 47 to 50, and the resolution died. DHS estimated 293,000 to 449,000 pending renewal EAD applicants at risk of a lapse without the extensions.
- Ricketts Praised the Law's Border Money and the Laken Riley Act in December 2025. In a December 5, 2025 column, Ricketts wrote that "The OBBB makes a generational investment to help finish the border wall" and hire more Border Patrol agents, and that the Laken Riley Act "ensures that criminal illegal aliens will be detained and deported." The law he praised requires detention on a charge alone, and under it judges have held people whose criminal cases were dismissed.
- Ricketts Defended the Glenn Valley Raid the Day After It Happened. On June 11, 2025, the day after the Omaha raid, Ricketts told reporters on a media call, "It's important to remember that if you're in the country illegally, you're breaking the law," and said President Trump was elected to secure the border. The company's president said Glenn Valley had used E-Verify and had "no notification, no idea whatsoever" a raid was coming. Three months later, one Omaha mother taken in the raid had been deported to Mexico; her kids are all U.S. citizens, the Nebraska Examiner reported.
What the ICE Raid at Glenn Valley Foods Under Officials Pete Ricketts Confirmed Did in Nebraska
- Meatpacking raid. Federal agents detained more than 70 people during a raid on the Glenn Valley Foods meatpacking plant in Omaha on June 10, 2025; the plant had about 140 workers, and afterward the facility's production dropped to about 20% of normal.
- Detention in North Platte. Of the roughly 80 people arrested, about a dozen were released early and 63 were sent to North Platte, to the Lincoln County Jail, which ICE pays to hold detainees. By September 2025 a second woman from the raid was removed to Mexico last week without her two children, who stayed in Omaha.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pete Ricketts on Immigration and enforcement
What is Pete Ricketts's record on immigration enforcement under Trump?
Pete Ricketts cast one of the 50 votes for the 2025 law that put $45 billion into immigrant detention, voted for $69.5 billion more for ICE and Border Patrol in June 2026, and voted for the Laken Riley Act. He voted against body cameras and detention inspections, and he voted to confirm the Homeland Security secretaries whose agents raided an Omaha meatpacking plant and sent most of those detained to North Platte.
What did Pete Ricketts say about the ICE raid in Omaha?
Pete Ricketts said the day after the June 2025 Glenn Valley Foods raid, "if you're in the country illegally, you're breaking the law," and he said some employers had told him E-Verify has limits. The company's president said it had used E-Verify, and a state senator whose district includes the plant said children will lose parents.
Did Pete Ricketts vote for the Laken Riley Act?
Yes. Pete Ricketts voted for the Laken Riley Act on January 20, 2025, and he later wrote that it "ensures that criminal illegal aliens will be detained and deported." The law requires detention of immigrants who are only charged with or arrested for theft and other listed crimes, before any conviction.
Did Pete Ricketts vote for the ICE funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act?
Yes. Pete Ricketts voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 1, 2025, and because it passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, it would have failed without him. The law's detention money is a 308 percent increase over ICE's 2024 annual detention budget.
Last updated: 2026-10-25