Even though Fiscal Year 2024 for the federal government doesn’t end until August 31, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is already $1 billion over budget and “spending like a drunken sailor,” according to a Democratic senator who is warning that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem could be criminally charged if she continues to spend more than what Congress has allocated to her agency.
According to an eye-opening report from Axios, ICE is burning through taxpayer money at a rate never before seen.
“DHS recently shifted around almost $500 million within its accounts to help support its immigration operations. But the agency asked appropriators for at least $2 billion more to meet the agency’s needs by the end of September.”
If, as expected, ICE does run out of money before August 31, it would violate the Antideficiency Act, which would trigger possible criminal charges against Noem as head of the agency that oversees ICE.
“The law bans agencies from obligating or spending federal funds that haven’t been approved by Congress. Agency officials theoretically could face criminal charges and fines for violations, but no one has been charged before.”
All of this has led Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) to suggest that Noem and her agency are out of control and refusing to follow the rules that apply to all federal offices.
“They are spending likely in the neighborhood of a billion dollars more at ICE than we authorized, and that’s patently illegal,” Murphy said. “They cannot invent money. They cannot print money. They don’t have the money to spend that they’re spending.”
The only possible solution, according to members of the Trump administration, is for Congress to pass his “big beautiful” budget ASAP, with DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin noting, “President Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is critical to ensure we have the funding to secure our homeland for generations and deliver on the American people’s mandate for safety and security.”
Or, of course, DHS and ICE could stop spending money they don’t have and be forced to live within a budget the same way most Americans have to each and every month.
Puppy murderer Noem needs to be reined in. And while we’re at it, she also needs to be locked up in one of the foreign concentration camps she’s so fond of sending others to.
