Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is reportedly planning to release thousands of detained immigrants and reduce its detention capacity.
According to a report by The Washington Post, ICE had drafted plans to significantly reduce its detainees amid a funding shortfall of $700 million. Because Congress recently failed to pass a border bill aimed at addressing the agency’s budgetary woes, ICE is now facing inadequate funding that will prevent them from utilizing all available resources.
“The Administration has repeatedly requested additional resources for DHS’s vital missions on the southwest border and Congress has chronically underfunded them,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security. “Without adequate funding for CBP, ICE, and USCIS, the Department will have to reprogram or pull resources from other efforts.”
To address the budgetary shortfall, ICE is considering reducing its detention capacity by slashing the number of beds in its facilities from 38,000 to 22,000. This move comes amidst a surge in border apprehensions, with over 2.5 million migrants reportedly apprehended at the border last year according to Customs and Border Protection. Recent data also shows that border arrests saw a 50% decrease in January compared to December.
The revelation of ICE’s plans coincides with heightened scrutiny over the federal government’s handling of border security issues. The House of Representatives recently voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, making him the first cabinet official to face impeachment in over a century. Lawmakers criticized Mayorkas for allegedly disregarding laws passed by Congress and failing to enforce border security measures effectively.
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green condemned Mayorkas’s actions, accusing him of undermining congressional authority and failing to properly execute border laws.
“[Mayorkas is] disregarding the laws that this body passed, basically disregarding the institution in the United States Congress, disregarding the Constitution in of itself, which says we write the laws and they execute them,” Green said following the vote to impeach Mayorkas.
This piece first appeared at TPUSA.
