Administration may pull money from TSA to help fund deportations
The executive branch is allowed to move money appropriated by Congress from one agency to another within a department, and this Trump administration would not be the first to do so in order to make up for an ICE budget shortfall.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the principal agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations, faces a budget shortfall, and Trump administration officials are considering pulling funding from the Transportation Security Administration to make up for it, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
The administration is also looking at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Coast Guard as possible areas from which to take money to give ICE.
The executive branch is allowed to move money appropriated by Congress from one agency to another within a department, and the Trump administration would not be the first to do so to make up for an ICE budget shortfall.
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security, ICE and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
ICE was facing a $230 million budget shortfall even before Trump took office and ramped up deportations, when it averaged around 282 arrests per day. On Sunday, ICE arrested more than 1,200 people, according to a senior DHS official, and senior leaders at ICE have been told the agency must continue to arrest 1,200 to 1,500 people per day.
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