Washington, D.C.- Yesterday, the Biden Administration presented new immigration measures they plan to implement when the border expulsion policy, known as Title 42, lifts on May 11. As part of their domestic approach, the administration will scale up resources for expedited deportations, “holding” in other words, detention capacity, increase severe surveillance programs, and other enforcement operations. These policies are made possible through federal agencies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The announcement reads, “While the Department is prudently utilizing the limited funding Congress has provided to prepare for the post-Title 42 environments, this notification of repurposing existing funds is only a fraction of what DHS will ultimately need.”
In response, the Defund Hate campaign, a coalition of groups that analyzes and advocates for decreased funding to ICE and CBP, offered the following statement:
“Each year, the federal government allocates tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to ICE and CBP— agencies that harm immigrant and border communities daily— and every year, we hear that it’s not enough. As Title 42 lifts, the Biden Administration is deciding to rely on ICE and CBP, agencies infamous for abuse and death, to respond to people seeking safety in the United States. The administration has long talked about a humanitarian response to migration, but these are not humanitarian agencies. ‘Surging resources’ and pleading to Congress for additional funding despite the agencies’ combined budget of over $25 billion is irresponsible and shameless. In the past, additional funding granted to ICE and CBP has been deceitfully mismanaged, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has picked from the pockets of emergency aid agencies to expand resources to harm immigrants.
As a campaign, we have engaged local communities nationwide, protesting excessive federal spending on detention and deportation. These local communities understand that a fraction of $25 billion would be transformative if invested in healthcare, housing, education, and much more.
Let’s be clear: the end of Title 42 is long overdue. Outsourcing our borders, mass deportations, and intense surveillance are not humane solutions, nor are they the solutions people need or want to pay for.”
