Trump Administration Diverts Resources from National Security to Mass Deportation, Making America Less Safe

Washington, DC — Relying on previously “unreported internal federal agency documents and footnotes in the Office of Management and Budget’s apportionments database,” a new must-read investigative piece in NOTUS, “How the Trump Administration Diverted Resources to Support Mass Deportations” adds new evidence to show why the Trump/Miller anti-immigrant crusade is making all of us less safe – and why ICE, CBP, and Stephen Miller shouldn’t have another dime for mass deportation via reconciliation.

The NOTUS piece (excerpted in more detail below) finds:

[There are] “at least six programs or accounts, largely related to national security, across the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State where spending, staff or other resources were directed toward immigration and deportation operations, deviating from Congress’ original intention. These are funds and resources being used on top of the $75 billion boost in funding that Republicans included for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their budget reconciliation bill last year.”

Find key excerpts from the NOTUS story by Anna Kramer, “How the Trump Administration Diverted Resources to Support Mass Deportations” below:

“State Department funds for countering foreign election interference. Senior staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Department of Homeland Security budget for an office focused on weapons of mass destruction. Training programs for prison guards. Those are just some of the federal resources that the Trump administration has redirected to support the president’s mass deportation agenda without congressional input.

NOTUS identified at least six programs or accounts, largely related to national security, across the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and State where spending, staff or other resources were directed toward immigration and deportation operations, deviating from Congress’ original intention. These are funds and resources being used on top of the $75 billion boost in funding that Republicans included for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in their budget reconciliation bill last year.

‘As somebody who joined DHS in 2005, shortly after it was formed, this feels like the biggest reorienting of federal resources toward a single end since 9/11,’ said Theresa Brown, a former DHS official in the Obama and Bush administrations. ‘We’re not creating a new department, but we are telling the entire federal government: This is now your No. 1 mission.’

The Trump administration has said it views immigration enforcement as a whole-of-government operation. Previously unreported internal federal agency documents and footnotes in the Office of Management and Budget’s apportionments database provide a new window into which federal resources have been redirected to make that happen.”