According to Politico, ICE warned Congress just days before the Senate votes on the Laken Riley Act.
The agency sent a three-page memo to Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA), answering questions he sent them last month.
ICE would need over $3 billion in funding. It could also lead to the release of more illegal aliens due to lack of room.
Should Congress enact the Laken Riley Act, ERO would require additional FY 2025 funding in the amount of $14,799,526 for personnel and associated tactical equipment-specifically for this proposed legislative requirement. This amount allows ERO to implement ten new MCAT teams (61 positions) across eight field offices within the United States and one HQ law enforcement officer. Furthermore, increasing detention capacity by more than 60,000 beds will require a funding increase of approximately $3.2 billion in the Custody Operations PPA. This amount assumes a five percent inflationary increase above the FY 2024 enacted bed cost appropriation.
ICE also told Green that uncooperative jurisdictions could hinder the agency from implementing the Act (emphasis mine):
Should Congress pass the Laken Riley Act, the bill would require the Secretary of Homeland Security shall issue a detainer for an alien…and, if the alien is not otherwise detained by Federal, State, or local officials, shall effectively and expeditiously take custody of the alien.” A complicating factor is a lack of cooperation from ICE’s state and local law enforcement partners. With the enactment of the Laken Riley Act, ERO would be compelled to allocate these limited resources to “expeditiously” identifying and arresting those noncitizens accused of, or convicted of, crimes against property, negating the prioritization of more egregious offenders.
Well, let’s remind ICE why Congress wrote this bill.
The legislation, named after Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley, would mandate the government “detaining” illegal aliens “charged with theft or burglary.”
Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge H. Patrick Haggard found illegal alien Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, guilty of murdering Riley.
According to Fox News, the NYPD arrested Ibarra “a year after he entered the U.S. in August 2023 and was ‘charged with acting in a manner to injure a child less than 17 and a motor vehicle license violation.’”
So do we wait until someone commits a heinous crime or nip it in the bud right away?
How many true crime shows have we seen where a victim ends up dead or brutalized because no one did anything?
“We’re prepared to give ICE the resources it needs to properly enforce federal law and protect American families, both through the appropriations and reconciliation processes,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) told Politico.
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