Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing a serious funding shortfall of $2 billion as its mass-deportation efforts are ramped up.
According to Axios, ICE has warned Congress it faces a massive black hole in its budget that could compromise its ability to carry out Trump’s flagship immigration policy.
Although Congress will send an additional $500 million in the stop-gap spending bill that just passed the House, that money would still fall well short of providing the funds ICE needs to continue working at its current pace through September.
Current plans for ICE expansion include the hiring of hundreds more stuff, the doubling of detention space to accommodate 100,000 people and increasing the number of detention flights.
The spending plan now before Congress is “not going to be sufficient to be able to cover the entire need for what they’re covering” at ICE, said Sen. James Lankford
“Just the bed space alone becomes very significant. And to just be able to detain people for a couple of days while they’re processing, and then to be able to move out flights… is exceptionally expensive.”
It may be possible to divert money to ICE from other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security, such as FEMA and the Coast Guard, but this could only be a temporary measure.
As part of a larger “budget reconciliation” bill, tens of billions of dollars have been earmarked for Trump’s immigration policies, but that bill is likely to take some time to pass, since it contains significant changes to tax policy that will provoke serious debate among lawmakers.
“While ICE backfills are well-intentioned and desperately needed, the clock is ticking on the [budget] reconciliation front. Every delay lets Biden’s chaos fester,” said RJ Hauman, founder of the National Immigration Center for Enforcement, which advocates for lowering immigration levels.
