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Activists are rallying to stop the U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE, from increasing its already staggering US$2.5 billion budget.
Nearly 200 organizations sent a letter to the U.S. appropriators who have the authority to make the changes in the fiscal budget, last week, detailing that how the increased budget could jeopardize lives.
"Despite its massive budget, ICE’s immigration detention system is rife with human rights violations," the National Immigrant Justice Center's website stated.
The letter is part of the larger #DefundHate campaign that is calling on Congress to stop pouring U.S. taxpayer's dollars into the "costly and abusive detention system."
In a webinar Tuesday, Mary Small, policy director at Detention Watch Network, described the proposed budget increase as "alarming."
"Trump wants to increase the budget for border patrol and immigration and customs enforcement by nearly 20 percent, which is really remarkable since both of these agencies have a really long track record of abuse including an alarming death toll, discrimination, lying, hiding information from the public and going against folks who speak out," she said at a webinar, hosted by the immigration advocacy groups We Belong Together, National Immigration Project and Detention Watch Network.
"It is a long list of really egregious behavior, and this is not at all what we expect from our government. So, the idea of expanding these programs is really alarming," Small added.
According to the National Immigrant Justice Center, the budget for ICE's detention program has already risen 10.4 percent since last year.
"Given the grave concerns about detention conditions and the administration’s plans to dispense with the governing national standards for some detention facilities, a further increase in funding will jeopardize lives," the letter stated.
"We believe that no reasonable justification exists for ICE’s demand for more funds so soon after this supplemental appropriation."
ICE has failed to provide "for the basic health, safety, and due process rights of the men, women, and children in its custody. There is no justification to expand immigration detention at the expense of taxpayers and human lives," the letter pressed.
"ICE’s acting director has been explicit in his testimony before Congress that he intends to use enforcement funds to target all undocumented immigrants, including DACA recipients and their families, asylum seekers, and long-time residents of the United States who pose no risk to public safety," it added.
The increased budget is intended to strengthen Trump's deportation machine by recruiting 500 more border patrol agents and 1,000 additional ICE officers. The extra funds would also be used to hire more U.S. attorneys at the Department of Justice to conduct immigration-related prosecutions and to strengthen border wall militarization, including aircraft and surveillance technology to monitor border communities.
Trump has also expanded the list of offenses that can lead to swift deportations and has tried to withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities.
The change in policies has increased immigration arrests to their highest level in three years.
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In a recent expose, a veteran agent at ICE agent told the New Yorker, “We’re going to get sued. You have guys who are doing whatever they want in the field, going after whoever they want.”
“We used to look at things through the totality of the circumstances when it came to a removal order — that’s out the window,” the agent told New Yorker's Jonathan Blitzer.
“I don’t know that there’s that appreciation of the entire realm of what we’re doing. It’s not just the person we’re removing. It’s their entire family."
In April, during a meeting, one of the agent's superiors commented it was “the most exciting time to be part of ICE” in the agency’s history, the New Yorker reported.
"Providing ICE with additional funds for detention will serve to line the pockets of the private prison industry but will not serve the interests of the American taxpayer," the letter added.
"Alternatives to detention are far cheaper and infinitely more humane than detention. ICE has failed to take adequate advantage of such alternatives, as demonstrated in its recent termination of the pilot Family Case Management Program despite preliminary outcomes demonstrating the program’s efficacy, cost savings, and promise as a compassionate alternative to incarceration for families seeking protection in the United States," the letter by the advocacy groups concluded.
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