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Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
ICE's $175 billion windfall: Trump's mass deportation force set to receive military-level funding
President Donald Trump's budget, which passed the Senate Tuesday, allocated some $175 billion towards his mass deportation campaign, more money than almost any country spends on its military, and many times the estimated yearly cost it would take to end world hunger. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans green lit a budget that would cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans while slashing services like Medicaid and SNAP for everyone else. For the White House, however, the most important part of the bill seems to be the funding for Trump's campaign to purge immigrants and, potentially, American citizens from the country. Vice President JD Vance spoke to this in a post on X, writing: 'Everything else—the CBO score, the proper baseline, the minutiae of the Medicaid policy—is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions.' When put in context, it's easy to see why this is Vance's position. The $175 billion deportation budget is larger than the military budget for any country other than the United States and China, surpassing the Russian military budget by nearly $30 billion. Sily Shah, executive director of the human rights organization Detention Watch Network, told Salon that the budget would pave the way for an unprecedented increase in detention and deportation capacity. '45 years ago, we just didn't detain people in this way. For the most part, people were released from detention after a day or two, and they got to go through proceedings on their own while they were home with their families or working,' Shah said. 'Since then, the scale has gone up. But this is, this is the highest it's ever been. And they don't even have this money.' According to estimates from the World Food Programme, the funds going towards deportation would also be enough to fully fund the program to end world hunger for four years. Broken down, the $175 billion topline number includes nearly $30 billion ICE's enforcement budget; $45 billion for building new immigration detention centers; $47 billion for the construction of a border wall; $12 billion for state-level immigration measures; and roughly $10 billion to reimburse the Department of Homeland Security for 'safeguard[ing] the borders of the United States,' among other provisions. Americans have already had a preview of some of what's to come with the increased deportation budget, like on Wednesday, when Trump traveled to Florida to tour a new camp being built there to house immigrants. The facility, dubbed 'Alligator Auschwitz' by critics, is a 3,000-bed tent city and prison in the Everglades. The facility is expected to cost around $450 million a year, just a fraction of the $45 billion that Republicans have allocated towards building new detention facilities. This particular facility, however, is funded by FEMA funds, reminiscent of the 'FEMA concentration camp' conspiracy theory popular among Republicans, only this time it's real. And the Florida GOP is already selling 'Alligator Alcatraz' trucker hats, among other merch. Trump also suggested that the new camp could be the first of many, foreshadowing a new incarceration system in the United States. 'Well, I think would like to see them in many states. Really, many states,' Trump said. 'And, you know, at some point, they might morph into a system.' In terms of total capacity, the American Immigration Council estimates that the new funding will be enough to balloon ICE's detention capacity to at least 116,000 beds, which is comparable to the total number of Japanese Americans interned during the whole of WWII. Currently, ICE has around 56,000 people in detention facilities around the country, with many of the largest facilities located in southern states like Louisiana and Texas. The current population in detention facilities also represents the highest number of detainees since August of 2019. In practical terms, Shah said that she expects this to mean more camps like the one in Florida. Detention capacity, Shah explained, is a bottleneck in the deportation process, with more beds meaning that the Trump administration will be able to scale up their deportation campaign dramatically.'I think the work we need [is] to … make sure that doesn't get normalized,' Shah said. 'The conditions are terrible, and it makes it so much harder for people to fight their cases.' The budget for ICE's enforcement will likely be allocated in large part to hiring new ICE agents, the often-masked agents who abduct people from American streets and courthouses. The new $30 billion ICE budget, more than three times the previous budget, would provide for the hiring of some 10,000 ICE agents, who would receive a $10,000 bonus, per the White House. For comparison, the FBI's budget in fiscal year 2025 was just $11 billion. Shah underscored, however, that the ICE agents themselves likely won't be the primary drivers when it comes to detaining people. Rather, it will be local police departments and their coordination with ICE that will serve as a funnel to push more people into detention and ultimately into deportation. As for those who may be hoping to avoid ending up at one of Trump's new camps through resources like the popular ICEBlock app, Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, said he's planning a crackdown. Homan told far-right podcaster Charlie Kirk that the administration will be investigating the app, claiming it puts the ICE agents at risk. 'It puts ICE officers at a great risk,' Homan said. 'They're not Nazis! They're not racists! They're mothers and fathers, too. They're enforcing the laws enacted by Congress.' The post ICE's $175 billion windfall: Trump's mass deportation force set to receive military-level funding appeared first on
USA Today
08-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Trump on sending American prisoners to El Salvadorian prisons: 'I love that'
Trump on sending American prisoners to El Salvadorian prisons: 'I love that' Trump told reporters he would be in favor of sending American prisoners to El Salvador Sunday but that he doesn't 'know what the law says on that' Show Caption Hide Caption Deportations and revoked visas: What is Trump's immigration endgame? Legal migrants are left in limbo as millions see their status disappear from the Trump administration. President Donald Trump says he loves the idea of sending American inmates to El Salvador's prisons but needs to know more about it. Trump responded to a reporter's question about El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele offering to take prisoners. "I love it," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. "If he would take them, I'd be honored to give them. I don't know what the law says on that, but I can't imagine the law would say anything different ... If they can house these horrible criminals for a lot less money than it costs us, I'm all for it." He ended his comment by saying that he'd have to see what the law says. Bukele said in February that he had offered the U.S. "the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system." "We are willing to take in only convicted criminals (including convicted U.S. citizens) into our mega-prison ... in exchange for a fee," he wrote in a post on X. The Trump administration moved alleged members of Venezuelan crime gang Tren de Aragua, to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, also known as CECOT, through claimed powers of the Alien Enemies Act in March. Reporter: The president of El Salvador said he would be willing to take American citizens in federal prison population. Trump: I love that — Acyn (@Acyn) April 6, 2025 USA TODAY previously reported that its 256 cells houses an average of 156 inmates in metal bunks with no mattresses or sheets and only two toilets and two sinks for the entire group. The Supreme Court vacated temporary restraining orders prohibiting the government from removing some detainees but affirmed that, "the detainees subject to removal orders under the (Alien Enemies Act) are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal." Reaction to Trump's comments about American prisoners Human rights organization Detention Watch Network rebuked Trump's comments about sending American prisoners to El Salvador, calling the suggestion authoritarian. "(Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi) Noem and Trump's Department of Homeland Security are using the Salvadoran prison as a tool of propaganda with the core objective to dehumanize and villainize people while carrying out their cruel mass detention and deportation agenda unchecked," Setareh Ghandehari, advocacy director of Detention Watch Network, said in a statement published by Newsweek. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in February that Bukele's offer was "an extraordinary gesture never before extended by any country," according to NPR. "No country has ever made an offer of friendship such as this," Rubio told journalists on a trip to El Savador, NPR reported. "Obviously we'll have to study it on our end. There are obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution, we have all sorts of things." Supreme Court set to review deportation of father to CECOT Trump's comment came hours after U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland called the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to CECOT "wholly lawless" in an order to return him home by Monday night. Federal immigration agents arrested Abrego Garcia, 29, in March after pulling him over in an Ikea parking lot near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, about half an hour outside of Washington. The Trump administration contends he is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, although it has presented no evidence to back that up. 'They had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador – let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western hemisphere,' Xinis said. In a concurring opinion submitted with a unanimous denial of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Monday, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III −a Reagan appointee − laid out an argument that sending deportees out of the country would allow the government to avoid due process. "The facts of this case thus present the potential for a disturbing loophole: namely that the government could whisk individuals to foreign prisons in violation of court orders and then contend, invoking its Article II powers, that it is no longer their custodian, and there is nothing that can be done," Wilkinson wrote. "It takes no small amount of imagination to understand that this is a path of perfect lawlessness, one that courts cannot condone." Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts put an administrative stay on the order to return Abrego Garcia home by Monday night hours before the deadline. Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas, Michael Collins, Nick Penzenstadler, Josh Meyer; Reuters
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
While signing Laken Riley Act, Trump says he'll send 'worst criminal aliens' to Guantanamo
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed the Laken Riley Act into law, giving federal authorities broader power to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally who have been accused of crimes. He also announced at the ceremony that his administration planned to send the 'worst criminal aliens' to a detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The bipartisan act, the first piece of legislation approved during Trump's second term, was named for Riley, a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was slain last year by a Venezuelan man in the U.S. illegally. 'She was a light of warmth and kindness,' Trump said during a ceremony that included Riley's parents and sister. 'It's a tremendous tribute to your daughter what's taking place today, that's all I can say. It's so sad we have to be doing it.' Trump has promised to drastically increase deportations, but he also said at the signing that some of the people being sent back to their home countries couldn't be counted on to stay there. 'Some of them are so bad that we don't even trust the countries to hold them because we don't want them coming back, so we're gonna send 'em out to Guantanamo,' Trump said. He said that he'd direct federal officials to get facilities in Cuba ready to receive immigrant criminals. 'We have 30,000 beds in Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal aliens threatening the American people,' the president said. The White House announced a short time later that Trump had signed a presidential memorandum on Guantanamo. Migrant rights groups quickly expressed dismay. 'Guantanamo Bay's abusive history speaks for itself and in no uncertain terms will put people's physical and mental health in jeopardy,' Stacy Suh, program director of Detention Watch Network, said in a statement. Trump said the move would double U.S. detention lockup capacities, and Guantanamo is 'a tough place to get out of.' The Guantanamo facility could hold 'dangerous criminals' and people who are 'hard to deport,' said a Trump administration official speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration would seek funding via spending bills Congress will eventually consider. The administration's border czar, Tom Homan, said U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement would run the facility in Cuba and that the 'the worst of the worst" could go there. The U.S. military base has been used to house detainees from the U.S. war on terrorism for years. But authorities have also detained migrants at sea at a facility known as the Migrant Operations Center on Guantanamo, a site the U.S. has long leased from the Cuban government. Many of those housed there have been migrants from Haiti and Cuba. The U.S. has leased Guantanamo land from Cuba for more than a century. Cuba opposes the lease and typically rejects the nominal U.S. rent payments. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Trump wanting to ship immigrants to the island is 'an act of brutality.' 'The US government's decision to imprison migrants at the Guantanamo Naval Base, in an enclave where it created torture and indefinite detention centers, shows contempt for the human condition and international law,' Rodriguez wrote in a post on X. The Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that enemy combatants in the war on terror held without charge at the military prison at Guantanamo had the right to challenge their detention in federal court. But the justices did not decide whether the president had the authority to detain people at all. Before Trump took office, the Democratic administrations of Barack Obama and Joe Biden worked to reduce the number of terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo. Laken Riley was out for a run in February 2024 when she was killed by Jose Antonio Ibarra, a Venezuelan national who was in the country illegally. Ibarra was found guilty in November and sentenced to life without parole. Ibarra had been arrested for illegal entry in September 2022 near El Paso, Texas, and released to pursue his case in immigration court. Federal officials say he was arrested by New York police in August 2023 for child endangerment and released. Police say he was also issued a citation for shoplifting in Georgia in October 2023. The act quickly passed the newly Republican-controlled Congress with some Democratic support even though opponents said it possibly could lead to large roundups of people for offenses as minor as shoplifting. The swift passage, and Trump's quickly signing it, adds to the potent symbolism for conservatives. To critics, the measure has taken advantage of a tragedy and could lead to chaos and cruelty while doing little to fight crime or overhaul the immigration system. Riley's mother thanked Trump while holding back tears. 'He said he would secure our borders and he would never forget about Laken and he hasn't,' she said. Several top Republican lawmakers and Noem attended the signing ceremony, as did Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a cosponsor. Under the new law, federal officials would have to detain any immigrant arrested or charged with crimes such as theft or assaulting a police officer, or offenses that injure or kill someone. State attorneys general could sue the U.S. government for harm caused by federal immigration decisions — potentially allowing the leaders of conservative states to help dictate immigration policy set by Washington. Some Democrats have questioned whether it is constitutional. The ALCU says the law can allow people to be 'mandatorily locked up — potentially for years — because at some point in their lives, perhaps decades ago, they were accused of nonviolent offenses.' Hannah Flamm, interim senior director of policy at the International Refugee Assistance Project, said the measure violates immigrants' basic rights by allowing for detaining people who have not been charged with wrongdoing, much less convicted. 'The latent fear from the election cycle of looking soft on crime snowballed into aiding and abetting Trump's total conflation of immigration with crime,' Flamm said. She also noted, 'I think it is pivotal to understand: This bill, framed as connected to a tragic death, is pretext to fortify a mass deportation system." ___ Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.
