NBC News has confirmed the Trump administration is pulling $271 million in funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum-seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico.
“We would not say this is with no risk but we would say that we worked it in a way to…minimize the risk. This was a must pay bill that needed to be addressed,” said a DHS official, who noted that the funds would begin transfer immediately to fund ICE through Sept. 30.
DHS FY 2019 Southwest Border Emergency Transfer and Reprogramming document can be read HERE.
Interestingly, the allocations on the diverted funds were sent to Congress as a notification and not a request because Trump believes he has the authority to repurpose these funds after Congress did not give him the money he wanted for ICE detention beds last June.
According to the letter from Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., which was seen by NBC News, the DHS will lose $116 million previously allocated for Coast Guard operations, aviation security and other components. Another $155 million will be diverted from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund to pay for facilities for immigration court proceedings.
These figures were confirmed by Senator Jon Tester and other Democratic lawmakers, who complained that the administration hadn’t provided enough justification for pulling the funds, Politico reports.
“I have grave concerns about DHS’s proposed end-run around laws passed by Congress that would drain millions from agencies tasked with protecting the homeland from security threats and natural disasters like hurricanes and wildfires,” Tester said in a statement.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the move “stunningly reckless.” Pelosi said, “Stealing from appropriated funds is always unacceptable, but to pick the pockets of disaster relief funding in order to fund an appalling, inhumane family incarceration plan is staggering — and to do so on the eve of hurricane season is stunningly reckless.”
