Immigration and Customs Enforcement may not have the cash to carry out Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda.
The agency is already $1 billion over budget and could run out of funds as soon as next month, Axios reported Monday. The task force’s dwindling bank account has sparked concerns among lawmakers on both sides of the aisle that the president might look to cannibalize other agencies or sources of revenue in order to keep hunting and forcing people out of the country.
Some lawmakers warned that ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, could be in violation of the law if it continues to spend at its current rate.
“Trump’s DHS is spending like drunken sailors,” Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy told Axios.
Trump has tasked ICE to “do all in their power” to create the “single largest Mass Deportation Program in History.” That includes expanding its efforts to specifically target Democratic-led cities around the country, including Chicago and New York.
“These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Sunday night, continuing to elevate an election conspiracy that failed to collect evidence and was thoroughly disproven in the wake of the 2020 election. “These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities—And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them.”
Trump and his allies have continued to apply pressure on future U.S. elections by advancing executive orders that would require citizens to display additional documentation before they are allowed to drop their ballot at the voting booth. Last week, a federal judge blocked portions of one such order, writing that adding barriers to the voting process would only harm eligible voters. That is, especially given the fact that it is illegal and impossible for noncitizens to vote in U.S. elections.
“That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports—And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role,” the president continued in his post. “You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!”
But exactly how ICE is supposed to meet Trump’s demand is becoming increasingly unclear. The agency has already required assistance from other law enforcement services—such as the FBI, the DEA, and the ATF—in order to help meet its White House-imposed quota of 3,000 immigration-related arrests per day, CNN reported last month.
The demand has placed even more pressure on Congress to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill, which would allot $75 billion to ICE over the next five years.
The post ICE Is About to Go Broke Thanks to Trump’s Bonkers Immigration Goals appeared first on New Republic.
