DHS takes money from disaster funds to pay for detention needs

The White House plans to increase the capacity of its controversial migrant detention centers and courts that adjudicate illegal immigration cases by taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of the accounts of other Department of Homeland Security agencies, according to a notice the agency sent to Congress.

According to the notice, which was first reported by NBC News, the agency plans to transfer $116 million for detention facilities and $115 million for immigration hearing facilities.

Congress passed budget legislation for fiscal year 2019 that was aimed to encourage DHS to reduce the number of migrants it detains, but the notice states that the agency expects its numbers of detained migrants to increase before the end of the year, and therefore require the reprogramming of funds.

Though the funding comes from a variety of other DHS accounts — including National Guard funding, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Transportation Security Agency — the Federal Emergency Management Agency would see the biggest draw on its funds, with $155 million coming out of its Disaster Relief Fund Base.

According to the notice, the fund is expected to recover and retain enough money to ensure that the fund retains a carryover balance of $447 million.

“Absent significant new catastrophic events, DHS believes that the resulting DRF Base balance is sufficient to support operational needs,” the notice said.

The news comes just as a tropical storm nears the coast of Puerto Rico, which was ravaged by storms last year.

President Donald Trump lamented the amount of money that was spent to address that natural disaster, and FEMA itself has recently struggled to adequately spread out resources for natural disasters that have become increasingly more common and destructive.

About Jessie Bur

Jessie Bur covers federal IT and management.