“Teams are coming home before the end of a shift because of lack of beds — not a lot, but it’s happened a few times.
John Sandweg, acting ICE director from 2013 to 2014, highlighted the difficulty of hiring that many people that fast for complicated jobs.
The Trump administration’s efforts to work around the immigration courts have been met with legal challenges.
And the case backlog is substantial: roughly 700 immigration judges are coping with a 3.5 million case pile-up.
The funding for immigration judges is “important as well, because the system is backlogged,” said Michael Hough, director of federal relations at NumbersUSA, a group that works to reduce both legal and illegal immigration.
Even Trump border czar Tom Homan admits the administration has a lot of work ahead, particularly when it comes to implementing Trump’s promise to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The megabill, which the president signed into law Friday, offers an unprecedented infusion of funding into the nation’s immigration enforcement apparatus.
“Look, it’s not that simple. “It has never happened before—10,000 ICE officers,” Homan told POLITICO on Friday. It’s about time, though, because we can accomplish more with more funding. “.”.
Although Homan is certain that the funds will be used by the end of Trump’s administration, he was unable to estimate when the administration would reach one million removals per year. He is already collaborating with ICE to determine how quickly the administration can add more detention beds and how many additional agents the agency can hire in the upcoming three months.
Increasing deportations is a major campaign promise that the Trump administration will probably want to highlight before the midterm elections, and its ability to quickly spend the billions it requested will probably prove crucial in this endeavor.
“The Trump administration will use the new funding to build more of the border wall and barriers and strengthen technology that will enable agents to communicate with one another in radio and cellular dead zones,” Homan said.
Additionally, the administration will act swiftly to increase the capacity of detention facilities, collaborating with contractors to reopen abandoned prisons and facilities and construct soft-sided facilities similar to what Florida accomplished with “Alligator Alcatraz.”. “.”.
With an average of 1,500 to 2,000 arrests per day, Homan stated that ICE has been “on a constant chase, trying to move flights out as quickly as possible just to make room for the arrests they’re making.”. “Although it doesn’t happen often, teams are leaving work early because there aren’t enough beds. Thus, the beds will increase our capacity for detention. That is what matters most. “”.
In an effort to better target its efforts to identify undocumented immigrants within the nation, the administration has also been receiving contractor pitches on technology and other solutions. The administration will also work with contractors to increase transportation and removal flights, according to Homan, and they may be used to fill positions that don’t require a badge or a gun.
The challenge of hiring so many people so quickly for complex jobs was brought to light by John Sandweg, the acting director of ICE from 2013 to 2014. The recruitment, screening, onboarding, and training of thousands of new officers are all part of ICE’s significant footprint expansion, which will also necessitate the construction of the agency’s training facilities, office space, human resources department, and equipment, including vehicles and weapons.
Sandweg remarked, “That is much more difficult than it seems.”. Additionally, they still have three and a half years left in their second term. “”.
After obtaining billions from Congress, previous presidents like Joe Biden discovered that “shovel ready” projects are difficult to find. The Biden administration hurried to get money out the door before Trump took office, and the current administration has attempted to freeze grants totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, but the courts have blocked their efforts.
Sandweg predicted that it would take at least three years to deploy 10,000 additional officers, and that “you’re going to have to really push it to the limits in order to get them operational in this administration” if the administration hopes to complete this task before the end of Trump’s term. “.”.
According to him, this worries him that vetting requirements might be relaxed for expediency. The quick expansion of the Customs and Border Patrol during the administration of former President George W. Bush questioned the hiring practices of that administration, which led to widespread misconduct at the agency that persisted into the Obama administration.
Additionally, ICE must search domestically to meet its arrest quota, which in recent weeks has been 3,000 apprehensions per day, as illegal border crossings decline. Though it will take time for the administration to establish a “logistical pipeline all over the country,” an increase in arrests in the upcoming months does not necessarily translate into more deportations, according to Ken Cuccinelli, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term.
There are numerous small agreements with local and state representatives. More facilities are being built. The ones they currently have are being reopened. Every convoy moves as quickly as the slowest ship, so all you need is one logistical choke point, Cuccinelli added. “The vehicles, the personnel, the security, and the aircraft must all be in the proper locations. “”.
The immigration court system will receive more than $1 billion in the domestic policy bill to hire more judges and staff, but it is unclear how quickly the administration can expand the courts and whether it can keep up with the increased pace of ICE arrests, or if the effort will ultimately lead to longer detention times.
There have been legal challenges to the Trump administration’s attempts to circumvent the immigration courts. The backlog of cases is also significant, with about 700 immigration judges handling between 3 and 5 million cases.
NumbersUSA, a group that aims to reduce both legal and illegal immigration, director of federal relations Michael Hough said the funding for immigration judges is “important as well, because the system is backlogged.”. It is necessary to bring these individuals before an immigration judge for hearings simply because they have been detained, particularly those who have been here for a long time. “”.
Politicians are already under increasing pressure to pass new legislation, even as the White House rejoices over the bill’s passage. According to immigration hawks, the funding is essential, but the party must also focus on legislation that will permanently alter the immigration system, like reviving discussions about border security and asylum law from the party’s H legislation from the previous year. R. . 2.
“Now that they’ve passed the Big Beautiful Bill Act, we’re going to keep looking to them to move things forward and not just sit on their hands,” a person close to the Trump administration who asked to remain anonymous said of the other legislative changes that Republicans ran on. No, this is a budget reconciliation bill. Although it has invested a significant amount of funds in this endeavor, the administration has discussed and intends to pursue certain policy changes. “”.
