While Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces opposition in Los Angeles and other sites targeted as part of President Donald Trump’s “Mass Deportation Program,” the agency may face another threat: a funding battle in Congress.
As reported by Axios, ICE is “burning through cash so quickly that the agency charged with arresting, detaining and removing unauthorized immigrants could run out of money next month.”
ICE is already as much as $1 billion over budget for the year, and although Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” could provide $75 billion to ICE, that doesn’t solve the short-term cash crunch, and spending money an agency doesn’t have is a violation of the Antideficiency Act, according to Axios.
Republican senators told Axios that they’re hoping to get ICE more funding before it can run afoul of that law, but Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) said they’re already overspending “like drunken sailors.”
“They are spending likely in the neighborhood of a billion dollars more at ICE than we authorized, and that’s patently illegal,” Murphy said. “They cannot invent money. They cannot print money. They don’t have the money to spend that they’re spending.”
At least one former federal budget official, who spoke to Axios on the condition of anonymity, believes the Trump administration will simply declare a national emergency and divert funds from other parts of the government to support ICE.
“I have a feeling they’re going to grant themselves an exception apportionment, use the life and safety exception, and just keep burning money,” that official said.
