Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the principal agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations, faces a budget shortfall, and Trump administration officials are considering pulling funding from the Transportation Security Administration to make up for it, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
The administration is also looking at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Coast Guard as possible areas from which to take money to give ICE.
The executive branch is allowed to move money appropriated by Congress from one agency to another within a department, and the Trump administration would not be the first to do so to make up for an ICE budget shortfall.
Congress must be notified of such transfers, and there are limits on how much can be transferred. For example, according to a 2023 Congressional Research Service report, in fiscal year 2023, up to 5% of any DHS appropriation could be moved elsewhere within DHS, so long as the recipient’s budget as originally set by Congress didn’t increase by more than 10%.
In his inaugural address, Trump promised his administration would deport “millions and millions.” If the average cost to deport one person remains the same as during the previous administration, the Trump administration would be looking at spending $10.5 billion to deport just 1 million migrants.
In fiscal year 2023, during the Biden administration, DHS moved about $400 million to ICE from other parts of DHS. That money would cover the deportations of fewer than 40,000 people.
Posted by John3262005
4 Comments
“May”, “could”, “perhaps” have a downvote.
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If a major terror attack happens, more than likely Trump will use it to consolidate power more. It’s a win win for him.
I’m starting to think we have a full-blown Mad King scenario on our hands.