Congress questions plans for ICE cash

The infusion of new funding from the GOP’s big spending bill sets off alarms.

- LISA MASCARO

FEDERAL agents escort a family to a bus after detaining them in immigration court July 22 in San Antonio.

President Trump's border advisor Tom Homan visited Capitol Hill just weeks after Inauguration Day, with other administration officials and a singular message: They needed money for the White House's border security and mass deportation agenda.

By summer, Congress delivered. The Republican Party’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts that Trump signed into law July 4 included what’s arguably the biggest boost of funds yet to the Department of Homeland Security — nearly $170 billion, almost double its annual budget.

Now the crush of new money is setting off alarms in Congress and beyond, raising questions from Democratic and Republican lawmakers who are expected to provide oversight.

The bill text provided general funding categories — almost $30 billion for ICE officers, $45 billion for detention facilities, $10 billion for the office of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem — but few policy details or directives.

The staggering cash infusion is powering the nation’s sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, delivering gripping scenes of people being pulled off city streets and from job sites across the nation — the cornerstone of Trump’s promise for the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

Homeland Security confirmed over the weekend that ICE is working to set up detention sites at certain military bases.

“We're getting them out at record numbers,” Trump said at the White House bill signing ceremony. “We have an obligation to, and we're doing it."

Money flows and worry grows

It's not just the big bill's infusion of funds fueling the president's agenda of 1 million deportations a year.