WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security will propose to Congress to direct $110 million away from Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s budget and reprogram it to other agencies within DHS like the Secret Service and DHS cyber operations, a source with access to information within ICE told The Daily Caller.
“The DHS justification is, ‘Well, ICE, you’re not using all of your budget, and, it’s coming from bed and deportation money, because you can’t arrest people and you can’t detain people. So it doesn’t makes sense that you’re not using your budget, so we are going to take it away from you and give it to other divisions of homeland security,'” the person said.
Additionally, according to the source, DHS plans to take away the home-to-work government vehicles that ICE employees use.
“And so now ICE officers are shaking their heads saying, ‘Hey they don’t let us do our jobs and now they’re taking our budget and our money away from us and our cars, so they’re really frustrated,” the source told TheDC.
The Budget Control Act has forced sequestration cuts on the department and its agencies. ICE was pinched for money in 2013, and officials from the agency admitted to releasing more than 2,200 illegal immigrants in 2013 as a result of “budgetary reasons.”
Then-ICE Director John Morton told the House Homeland Security Subcommittee, “I take full responsibility for the agency, for the management of our beds,” he said. “And, as I have said and the secretary has said, you know, I regret that there is a level of surprise and questions about what we did.”
One source on the hill told TheDC, “ICE has been getting decimated. All the money goes to border patrol because they can’t deport people, while ICE – who actually are in charge of deportations – are handcuffed, silenced and stifled.This is how we get flooded with illegal immigrants: catch-and-release.”
The Daily Caller placed several inquiries about ICE’s budget to DHS, and the department did not respond in a timely manner.