I've been out on vacation for a few days so haven't posted this daily chart, but now that I'm back, time to talk about a not-so-good week the Biden administration is having.
After two straight weeks of progress, the number of kids in custody has unexpectedly hit a plateau.
One of the reasons this week hasn't seen a plateau is that there are a few hundred more unaccompanied children coming to the border this week compared to last week. But that could easily be normal variance and the trendline is still good.
The real concern is releases from ORR custody to sponsors. Last week was the first week since the Biden administration began reporting daily numbers that we saw the average number of children released to sponsors go *down.* And this week is on track for another drop!
The combination of falling numbers of releases to sponsors and (as of this week) a small increase in unaccompanied children coming to the border means that the trendline on net changes in children in custody has been going in the wrong direction for a few days.
All of this could easily be a few day speed bump and we could see numbers start going back down again within the next week or so.
This isn't the first time we've seen a speed bump in this process either. So this could easily be normal variance.
This week shows that the Biden administration's response to unaccompanied children is still quite fragile. Lots of successes but we're not out of the woods.
To end this thread with some good news, we're about to drop below 20,000 kids in custody for the first time since April 6.
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With this vote, Congress makes ICE the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency in history, with more money per year at its disposal over the next four years than the budgets of the FBI, DEA, ATF, US Marshals, and Bureau of Prisons combined.
Here is the funding for immigration enforcement in the bill, to be spent through September 30, 2029.
- $74.9 billion for ICE detention and removal
- $65.6 billion for CBP infrastructure, hiring, tech
- $10 billion DHS slush fund
- $3.5 billion for state enforcement
And more!
Read more about what's in the bill that just passed in our explainer. We estimate that ICE could increase detention capacity to at least 116,000 beds, including over 40,000 detention beds in tent camps — which we believe is a conservative estimate. americanimmigrationcouncil.org/fact-sheet/hou…
For those curious, those white things hanging from the ceiling are ventilation and air conditioning (which is seemingly not turned on where the picture was taken). If you count from the foreground, you can see one actively in use 7 down; it's inflated. Air comes out of the holes.
Seen some questions about where bathrooms are. Hard to say.
When I visited a CBP facility in Tucson that was built off of a similar model, there was a modified port-a-potty in the back of each cell and more bathrooms/showers outside of the cells.
If the bill passes, it could make ICE the nation’s largest jailer, with more funding for detention than the entire federal Bureau of Prisons. It would give ICE enough money to have more officers on board than the entire FBI.
This alone could transform American society forever.
If the GOP reconciliation bill passes, ICE gets through FY2029:
- $45 billion for detention, on top of the current annual budget of $3.4 billion
- $14.4 billion for transportation and removal, on top of the current annual budget of $750 million
- $8 billion for hiring
- And more
Read more about what’s in the reconciliation bill here. Note that our analysis has not yet been fully updated with changes made in the Senate bill.
NEW: Erez Reuveni, the DOJ lawyer fired for his honesty in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case, tells Congress that Emil Bove suggested the DOJ respond to any court orders blocking the CECOT deportations with "fuck you."
He also says DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign lied to Judge Boasberg.
Reuveni accuses Drew Ensign, the DOJ lawyer appearing for the Trump admin in the Alien Enemies Act case, of lying to Judge Boasberg on March 15 when he said he didn't know planes were taking off.
He says Ensign was at a meeting the day before when the flight were planned!
Reuveni says that on March 15 he was emailing DHS updates telling them that Judge Boasberg was ordering DHS to halt the flights.
His supervisor, August Flentje, noted Bove's "fuck you" line and joked Reuveni might be fired for telling DHS not to violate the order.
DISASTROUS. This means they will send people to horrific situations with no due process — in direct violation of promises the Solicitor General made to the Court in previous cases.
This greenlights sending people to be enslaved in Libya or tortured in any random foreign country.
Today the GOP justices on the Supreme Court endorsed migrants being sold into slavery.
They'll claim otherwise, but that's the reality — today's decision permits Trump to send people from countries around the world to any global hellhole that accepts a U.S. financial incentive.
Sotomayor's dissent is scathing. She accuses her colleagues of a gross abuse of discretion, saying they "interven[ed] to grant the Government emergency relief from an order it has repeatedly defied."
She's right. The 6-justice majority is effectively endorsing contempt of court.
This funding would make ICE the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the history of the United States, with greater detention capacity than the entire Federal Bureau of Prisons.
It would reshape society, making federal arrests a daily fact of life in every single community.
Personally I think we should not spend enough money to bring every American out of homelessness on rounding up large portions of America's farmworkers, roofers, drywall installers, masons, carpenters, cooks, janitors, and more, all to crash the economy.