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ICE could release thousands of migrants without more funding from Congress, official says
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering downsizing its detention capacity and releasing thousands of migrants from custody due to a budget shortfall that Congress has so far refused to address, a senior agency official told CBS News Wednesday.
Without sufficient funding, officials could be forced to release between 4,000 and 6,000 migrants from long-term immigration detention centers, according to the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal cost-saving plans.
ICE oversees a network of county jails and for-profit prisons across the U.S. to detain migrants it is seeking to deport, such as those who cross the southern border illegally or immigrants transferred to the agency after being charged or convicted of crimes. As of the end of January, ICE was detaining more than 38,000 immigrants, most of them recent border-crossers, agency data show.
As part of a massive emergency funding request, the Biden administration late last year asked Congress for billions of dollars to fund ICE operations, including deportations, arrests, detention beds and migrant tracking technology. But Republicans in Congress blocked those funds and an accompanying bipartisan border policy agreement forged by the White House and a small group of senators, saying the deal — which included drastic limits on asylum — was not strict enough.
“Tough decisions”
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During a press conference earlier this month, interim ICE head Patrick Lechleitner said the agency would “have to make some tough decisions going forward if we don’t get more supplemental funding.”
The potential release of thousands of migrants, first reported by The Washington Post, is not a certainty. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, could still divert money from other sub-agencies, such as the U.S. Coast Guard, to make up for the budget deficit.
In a statement to CBS News, Erin Heeter, a DHS spokesperson, warned that a “reduction in ICE operations would significantly harm border security, national security, and public safety.”
If there’s not enough funding, Heeter said DHS would “reprogram or pull resources from other efforts” to fund ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, agencies that also asked for billions of dollars in additional funds.
“The Administration has repeatedly requested additional resources for DHS’s vital missions on the southwest border and Congress has chronically underfunded them,” Heeter said. “Most recently, Congress rejected the bipartisan national security bill out of hand, which will put at risk DHS’s current removal operations, put further strain on our already overtaxed workforce, and make it harder to catch fentanyl at ports of entry.”
The budget shortfall also threatens to undermine ICE’s efforts to deport migrants who do not ask for asylum or who are found ineligible for U.S. refuge — a pillar of the Biden administration strategy to reduce the record levels of unlawful border crossings reported over the past years.
While illegal crossings along the southern border plunged by 50% in January after reaching a record quarter of a million in December, migrant arrivals have climbed in February and are expected to increase further in the spring, when migration historically rebounds.
Other parts of the sprawling U.S. immigration system would be also affected by the lack of new funding, DHS officials said. They include border surveillance technology and the processing of legal immigration benefits, such as green cards and asylum cases.
A Federal Emergency Management Agency program that provides money to cities and organizations that house and feed migrants released from DHS custody also ran out of funds last year. Many Republicans objected to the bipartisan border deal’s inclusion of more money for this program, saying it rewards entities they believe are encouraging illegal immigration.
Nicole Sganga contributed reporting.
CBS News
Watch Live: Biden awards Medal of Honor to 2 Union soldiers who hijacked train behind enemy lines
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Washington — President Biden is awarding posthumous Medals of Honor on Wednesday to two Army privates who were a part of a plot to hijack a train and destroy Confederate infrastructure during the Civil War.
The president will honor Philip Shadrach and George Wilson for their “gallantry and intrepidity” in carrying out a covert operation called the “Great Locomotive Chase,” which played out 200 miles behind Confederate lines in Georgia in 1862, the White House said.
“In one of the earliest special operations in U.S. Army history, Union Soldiers dressed as civilians infiltrated the Confederacy, hijacked a train in Georgia and drove it north for 87 miles, destroying enemy infrastructure along the way. During what later became known as the Great Locomotive Chase, six of the Union participants became the Army’s first recipients of the newly created Medal of Honor,” a White House official said.
The operation was hatched by James Andrews, a Kentucky-born civilian spy and scout. He proposed penetrating the Confederacy with the goal of degrading their railway and communications lines to cut off Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Confederate supplies and reinforcements.
Andrews, together with 23 other men, infiltrated the South in small groups, coming together north of Atlanta. On April 12, 1862, 22 of the men commandeered a locomotive called The General and ventured north, tearing up railroad tracks and cutting telegraph wires as they went. The men became known as the Andrews’ Raiders.
Shadrach, originally from Pennsylvania and orphaned at a young age, was just 21 when he volunteered for the mission. On Sept. 20, 1861, he left home and enlisted in a Union Army Ohio Infantry Regiment. Wilson, born in Ohio, was a journeyman shoemaker before he enlisted in a Union Army’s Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1861. He also volunteered for the Andrews’ Raid.
After the operation, both men were captured, convicted as spies and hanged.
“It is unknown why Private Shadrach and Private Wilson were not originally recommended for the Medal of Honor,” a White House official said. “Both were deserving in 1863, and on July 3, 2024, by order of the President of the United States both will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.”
The ceremony comes as questions mount over Mr. Biden’s future as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, with his public appearances under intense scrutiny following his halting performance at last week’s presidential debate. After the Medal of Honor ceremony, the president is meeting with Democratic governors to address their concerns and chart his path forward.
How to watch Biden present the Medal of Honor
- What: President Biden awards the Medal of Honor
- Date: July 3, 2024
- Time: 4:45 p.m. ET
- Location: White House
- Online stream: Live on CBS News in the player above and on your mobile or streaming device.
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What the Democratic convention could look like if Biden drops out
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