Raids and deportations drain ICE’s budget

“Your Department is out of control.” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy did not mince his words when he addressed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem in May, and this time he wasn’t talking about the raids and deportations she is carrying out, but rather about money; more specifically, about the management of the funds allocated to her department. The Connecticut lawmaker warned that the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant offensive has put the DHS at risk of running out of funding in July, months before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

This reality could lead the Department to fall into illegality. According to estimates published by Axios, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of DHS, has already exceeded its budget by $1 billion with three months left in the fiscal year. The Anti-Deficiency Act prohibits federal agencies from spending public money not appropriated by Congress or from spending more than their available funds.

These numbers don’t seem to add up at a time when the Administration is stepping up its actions to meet the goal of detaining 3,000 immigrants per day, an unprecedented number that has yet to be reached despite the impact on the budget. In March, the DHS reallocated $500 million and requested at least $2 billion more to finish the fiscal year within budget.

In another appearance in May, this time before the House Appropriations Committee, Republican Representative Mark Amodei asked Noem for better communication about her department’s spending.

President Donald Trump has several options if the coffers run dry. He could declare a national emergency, which would allow him to divert funds from other agencies to continue funding ICE. This is something he did during his first administration, when $4 billion was allocated from the Pentagon to build the wall with Mexico.

Adding to the current budget situation is the fact that this agency has already involved other areas of the federal government in its immigration operations, which indirectly adds more funding to this task. In mid-May, DHS requested the assistance of 20,000 National Guard troops, who have been supporting ICE personnel in Los Angeles for several days. Additionally, last week, the Secretary of Defense authorized the deployment of 700 members of the Army to support this agency’s efforts in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.

With or without a national emergency, the cost of these activities reinforces the need for Republican lawmakers to pass the fiscal and budget bill that Trump has dubbed his “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which has already been greenlighted in the House of Representatives and is now being reviewed by the Senate. The bill allocates $168 billion to agencies whose top focus will be on policies to implement the largest deportation effort in history, as promised by the president.

David Bier, an expert at the Cato Institute, explained in a recent article that spending on immigration enforcement is already extreme, given that 36 times more is allocated to that than to combating tax and financial fraud, and eight times more than the FBI’s budget. However, in his opinion, the new tax law would take this spending to “unimaginable” levels.

The funds allocated under this law would be available for five years and could be spread out over up to 10 years. Bier believes that what would be allocated to enforcing immigration laws and policies would far outweigh the remaining budget for ensuring and monitoring compliance with other laws by other state agencies.

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