Jennie Taer
Investigative Reporter
December 13, 2022 6:21 PM ET
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Congressional Democrats are seeking to reduce the number of illegal immigrants in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and encourage the release of thousands onto American streets as part of an omnibus spending bill, according to two appropriations bills, one in the House and the other in the Senate.
Democrats from the House and Senate proposed that ICE have the capacity to hold 25,000 illegal immigrants at a time “to prevent overcrowding that would create dangerous and inhumane conditions” in fiscal year 2023 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), reducing the agency’s capacity over 25%. If Democrats are able to include the plan in the omnibus spending bill, they would effectively hand organizations seeking to “abolish” ICE a victory, RJ Hauman, head of government relations and communications at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
In their proposals, Congressional Democrats have asked for increased reliance on what is known as ICE’s “Alternatives to Detention” program, which the agency implemented in 2004 to monitor illegal immigrants released from custody with tracking devices like cell phones as detention facilities lacked the capacity and immigration courts faced long wait times.
“The law explicitly requires that all aliens crossing the border illegally be detained, but Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration don’t want to detain or deport anyone,” Hauman said. “So it isn’t surprising that they are attempting to undermine the rule of law by cutting detention capacity, disguising their efforts by calling it inhumane, wasteful, unnecessary etc. Slowly but surely, they’re trying to zero out detention bed space and allow organizations that seek to abolish ICE to operate deeply-flawed ‘alternatives to detention.'”
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https://dailycaller.com/2022/12/13/congressional-democrats-department-of-homeland-security-appropriations-omnibus/
