The New York Post Editorial Board reports that Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee has just cut $4 billion from ICE’s budget and the portion they cut deals with enforcement and removal:
Democrats’ #AbolishICE crowd is running the show on the House Appropriations Committee, which just OK’d plans to slash the budget for Enforcement and Removal Operations, the key border-control portion of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The plan also orders ERO to focus on handing illegal immigrants over to nonprofit-run shelters, rather than ones run by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
The overall ICE budget would drop slightly from the $7.97 billion it received last year but ERO faces a cut from $4.1 billion this year to $3.79 billion, less than the Biden administration requested — despite the flood of migrants, which is setting a new record every month.
At the same time, they note that Henry Cuellar, the one honest Democrat about the border, isn’t happy about it and vows to reestablish the funding somehow:
The cuts likely won’t hold: Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), the No. 2 Democrat on Appropriations’ Homeland Security subcommittee, vows that “these problematic funding shortfalls will be corrected.”
Cuellar’s a straight shooter who recently called out President Joe Biden’s boast about fewer migrants being held in ICE custody by noting they’d simply been moved to HHS facilities.
They also say these non-profit shelters are going to be raking in the cash if this stands:
But the policy changes are ominous, too: This means a windfall for the nonprofits chosen to house the migrants, and New Yorkers know all too well how often politically connected “charities” can fail to deliver decent services.
And lastly, they say the AOC #AbolishICE crowd in the Democratic Party is winning:
Most important: This move suggests that Biden’s plans to “reform” ICE are losing out in the party to the AOC wing’s “Border enforcement is evil” priority.
This is just another reason why Republicans must win back the House next year, so they can re-establish the appropriate ICE funding in order that they can properly maintain the integrity of the border. Not only has Biden made the border a disaster with his insane policies, but Democrats are trying to make his disaster as permanent as they can so that all these illegals (new Democratic voters) remain here and are never deported.