The Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE, for its acronym in English) will run out of funds in October, due in part to the increase in expenses due to the massive arrival of asylum seekers and due to the new policies of the Government of Joe Biden, which has forced it to expand its budget to ensure that the agency continues to function, according to the digital media Axios reported on Thursday.
ICE needs $345 million to finish the fiscal year, so the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has had to redistribute money earmarked for other programs.
ICE agents in California in 2018. Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images
ICE will receive $100 million set aside for the Coast Guard, according to two anonymous sources cited by Axios;
It is still unknown where the rest of the funds could come from to cover the expenses of the agency during the next three and a half months.
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The redistribution of funds has taken Congress by surprise, according to Axios, although the government is not required to request its permission for these financial movements.
The rebound in migrant arrivals at the border is not the only reason that ICE spending has skyrocketed so far this fiscal year.
The agency used 100 million dollars to reactivate the
Stay in Mexico
immigration program , created by former President Donald Trump and which forced asylum seekers to wait in the neighboring country for the resolution of their files in the United States.
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Biden annulled this policy when he arrived at the White House, but had to reactivate it by court order after the lawsuit filed by several states governed by the Republican Party.
The Supreme Court ruled in late June that the government can suspend this program, but Biden has not yet announced that decision.
In addition, ICE invested 14 million dollars for phone calls made by undocumented detainees, and another 15 million in planning the training of its agents to learn about the new deportation guide designed by the Biden Administration, which prioritizes the expulsion of migrants with criminal records.
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The implementation of this guideline is currently blocked by another appeal filed by Republican states, pending a ruling by the Supreme Court.
Likewise, the turn that the Government took when it came to finding alternatives to the detention of undocumented migrants has also triggered ICE spending.
One example is the 300,000 migrants who are currently enrolled in GPS tracking programs, rather than being held in detention centers.