Politics

$77 Million From Coast Guard Could Be Reassigned To ICE

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President Donald Trump is considering a plan to reallocate funds from the U.S. Coast Guard to increase enforcement at the southern border, according to reports by The Washington Post.

The Department of Homeland Security is “currently evaluating the need to reallocate funds, and will do so in a manner to minimize the impact on its operations and mission execution to the maximum extent possible,” said DHS spokeswoman Lesley Fulop in a statement.

$77 million could be reassigned to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and allocated to fund operations at the southern border as Trump cracks down on border security, according to an internal Coast Guard memo received by The Washington Post.

Trump’s budget draft in March 2017 received push back and failed when it called for the Coast Guard budget to be cut 14 percent to about $7.8 billion in an attempt to raise money for a wall at the border.

The Fiscal Year 2019 Homeland Security Appropriations bill approved by the Senate subcommittee on Thursday also outlined a plan to allocate $14.3 billion in funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and $7.21 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

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