NJ Immigrants Tell Congress To Defund ICE, Cut Deportation Budget

NEW JERSEY — With U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reportedly facing a massive shortfall, a coalition of activists from New Jersey say it’s time to finally take the agency’s budget “in the right direction” – down to zero.

On Thursday, immigration advocates from the Garden State hosted a webinar to discuss the 2023 Homeland Security appropriations bill, which provides funding for several federal agencies, including ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

The online forum was hosted by members of Make the Road New Jersey, the American Friends Service Committee, American Civil Liberties - New Jersey, Detention Watch Network, the Laundry Workers Center, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice and Wind of the Spirit. Watch the livestream here.

The Senate version of the spending bill includes discretionary funding of $59.9 billion, which is $2.4 billion more than the fiscal year 2022 enacted level, according to the Committee on Appropriations. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) would get $16.4 billion, which is about $1.7 billion above the fiscal year 2022 enacted level. However, ICE would only get $8.13 billion – a $119 million drop from last year.

Meanwhile, the U.S. House of Representatives has put forth its own spending proposal that would hike the budget for ICE by $138 million.

The Senate’s proposed funding cut for ICE comes as the agency faces an estimated $345 million shortfall for the current fiscal year, according to a report from Axios, which said ICE will run out of money by October unless the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pulls millions of dollars from other programs.

In late July, a group of House Republicans who are “gravely concerned” about the potential shortfall sent a letter to top administrators at Homeland Security and ICE, urging them to think about the “impact this will have on our already deteriorating southern border.” Read the full letter here.

The GOP lawmakers wrote:

“Words matter, the push from the left to defund ICE and open our borders has led to a flood of illegal immigrants and a poorly funded enforcement agency that has been unable to handle the influx.”

Across the aisle, however, activists around the nation have renewed their calls to President Joe Biden, demanding that ICE be abolished, Newsweek reported.

In the Garden State, activists calling for an end to ICE include Yeimi Hernandez, a community leader with Make the Road NJ.

“ICE and CBP continue to terrorize immigrant communities and threaten the lives and roots we have established in our state and hometowns,” Hernandez said, adding that every year, their budgets seem to “grow and grow.”

“Our communities are not safe,” Hernandez added.

During Thursday’s webinar, a member of the American Friends Service Committee, shared the story of her fiancée, Alex Kamara, an immigrant from Sierra Leone who has been detained for more than two years in an ICE detention center.

“Alex is a hard worker and a good father who loves his family,” she said. “It is not fair that he continues to be imprisoned just like many of our relatives who have given the best years of their lives working paying taxes to this country for a mistake they made, they want to expel them.”

Gloria Elizabeth Blanco, a member of Wind of the Spirit, said she supports defunding ICE, and added that the “right direction” for the agency’s budget is “toward zero.”

“We need our representatives to know that we want the good parts of the proposed bills, like the historic decrease in ICE funding, to end up in this blanket bill,” Blanco said.

• See related article: NJ Bans Prisons From Making Deals To Hold Detainees For ICE
• See related article: $500 For NJ Undocumented Immigrants? Plan Sees Cheers, Boos

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