Organizational Letters to Congress

Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, Speaker Ryan, Leader Pelosi, Chairman Shelby, Vice Chairman Leahy, Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s appropriated budget for immigration detention and enforcement has jumped by nearly one billion dollars in the past two years, from $3.212 billion in fiscal year 2016 to $4.110 billion in fiscal year 2018. DHS has achieved this massive increase through chronic fiscal mismanagement and outright manipulation of the appropriations process. Over the past two years DHS has persistently overspent its detention budget, confident that Congress will permit regular infusions of funds through reprogramming and transfers. By meeting this expectation, Congress has essentially given DHS the power to write its own appropriation by using its inflated detention budget as the starting point for each subsequent spending negotiation.