Los Angeles.- A coalition of 164 pro-immigrant and civil rights organizations urged the U.S. Senate on Thursday to reject a Republican proposal that contemplates allocating up to $140 billion in the next decade to the immigration agencies ICE and CBP, amid criticism of the increase in detentions and deaths in custody.
With a vote of 30-48, Republican senators approved this Thursday a budget measure that seeks to inject funds into the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The resolution paves the way for committees in both chambers to authorize funds and bypass the obstruction of Democrats who have refused to fund these agencies unless changes are implemented following the death of two U.S. citizens in protests in Minneapolis.
Fotografía de archivo de un agente del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas de EE.UU. (ICE). EFE/EPA/ Olga Fedorova
Naureen Shah, an executive at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), also lamented that 17 immigrants have died this year in the custody of Immigration and questioned the “reckless campaign of detentions and deportations”.
Meanwhile, Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, from United We Dream, questioned whether this new injection for immigration adds to “the 170 billion from last year.”
Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, policy counsel at the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), called the additional millionaire allocation to finance the Donald Trump administration’s mass detention agenda a “shame.”
“Instead of fueling the cruelty of ICE and CBP with more of our taxpayers’ dollars, any legislation that Congress considers must include a pathway to citizenship for the millions of immigrants who make this country thrive,” he added.
