DHS transferred $ 169 million of other programs to ICE for detention of migrants

According to a document sent to Congress by DHS, the Department of Homeland Security transferred $ 169 million from other agencies to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the detention and removal of migrants.

Most of the transfers came from major national security programs, including $ 1.8 million from the National Nuclear Detection Bureau, $ 9.8 million from FEMA, $ 29 million from the US Coast Guard and over 34 millions of dollars from several programs of the TSA. DHS also transferred $ 33 million from other CIE programs to pay the holding and withdrawal fees, which resulted in the transfer of $ 202 million.

Transfers from FEMA and the Coast Guard were first reported by The Rachel Maddow Show. Tuesday night, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Announced that nearly $ 10 million had been transferred from FEMA's budget to ICE. The budget document cited by Merkley, which was subsequently published and released by the DHS Watch program of America & # 39; s Voice, a Washington-based defense group, showed a break in how DHS transferred money between different programs and agencies.

The department has the power to transfer funds internally with congressional approval and transfers are not unusual. The total EDS budget for the 2018 fiscal year was $ 65 billion; The total FEMA budget was $ 15.5 billion.

DHS spokesperson Tyler Houlton tweeted Tuesday night: "Under no circumstances have disaster relief funds been transferred from @fema to immigration control efforts. This is a sad attempt to push a fake program. "He also stated that the money transferred came from current operating expenses and" could not be used for hurricane response due to ownership restrictions ".

On Wednesday, FEMA Director Brock Long told Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News, that one of the $ 10 million transferred from

"Currently, this money has nothing to do with what you see behind us," he said in an interview with FEMA's response center in Washington.

However, funding has been drawn from response and recovery, preparedness and protection and mission support budgets, which are used to prepare for emergencies such as Florence. Moira Whelan, FEMA's former chief of staff for the office of the Gulf Coast Reconstruction, Maddow said Wednesday. "Withdrawing money from this operation does not only hurt [FEMA’s hurricane response]it hurts every disaster we face. "

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comments on the other funds transferred.

DHS indicated in the document that transfers to ICE were made due to "increasing operational demands". The transfers were requested so that ICE could add more than 2,000 detention center beds to 38,000 adult beds that it would have included in its initial budget request for the year. According to the document provided to Congress, these beds cost $ 93 million more than the budget allocated.

The number of migrant children held in contract shelters with the federal government has also increased, multiplied by five last year, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.

ICE has also expanded two types of flight operations as part of its decommissioning program, increasing the cost of the $ 369-million program by $ 107 million. Its daily charter flights have increased by 28% this year.

The AP reported Wednesday that, according to the office of Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, DHS informed Congress on June 30 that it wished to transfer $ 200 million from other agencies to ICE, including including FEMA funds. Leahy, the high-ranking Democratic Senate credentials committee, said the transfer had been approved by the presidents of the Republican subcommittees and that no Democrat had approved it.

Transfers took place in August. Ur Jaddou, director of DHS Watch, described the redesign of the example funds as "priorities upside down."

Jaddou said the document suggests that the Trump administration prefers to separate families "and detain and expel parents [than] prepare for hurricanes. "