The incoming Trump administration is already making plans to harness the power of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to vastly increase the number of undocumented immigrants deported from the United States. But it faces an obstacle: ICE is already dealing with a $230 million budget shortfall, even before the costs that will be associated with mass deportations, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the figure.
Even with the continuing resolution spending bill introduced this week in Congress, ICE will continue to face a funding shortfall the officials said, because its operations —including detaining and deporting migrants at the current levels — are outpacing the $8.7 billion annual budget currently allocated to it by Congress. The continuing resolution, which is expected to pass this week, will extend current funding levels, including funding for ICE, until March 14.
"We are running hot," said the two officials, who spoke separately. They attributed the shortfall to the agency being historically underfunded and the increased need for ICE to remove migrants who are deemed ineligible for asylum, a number which has increased since June, when the Biden administration changed asylum policy.
ICE's budget shortfall may mean Donald Trump would have to delay his plans to boost the agency and ramp up deportations on the first day of his presidency.
The American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration research and advocacy group, estimates Trump's plan for mass deportations will cost more than $88 billion. Trump himself told NBC News' Kristen Welker earlier this month that there is "no price tag" when it comes to carrying out his mass deportation plan.
Congress has only two avenues to appropriate more funding to ICE in the near term without an emergency supplemental request from the White House. In January, when Republicans have control of the White House and the Senate and narrow control of the House, negotiations on next year's spending levels will begin in earnest.
Republicans could appropriate additional funding to ICE as part of the next government spending package, but it would require compromising with Democrats who will almost certainly need to provide votes to pass any bill through regular order.
Republicans have also discussed beefing up funds to ICE using budget reconciliation, a wonky procedural tool that enables the majority to bypass the mandatory 60-vote threshold to pass legislation related to funding. But the effort is already being met with resistance from some in the party who want to save their political capital to extend Trump's 2017 tax cuts later in the year.
Both strategies will take some time to muscle through both chambers of Congress, especially with House Speaker Mike Johnson facing an even slimmer majority in the new year. And the internal strife will make Trump's plan to begin carrying out mass deportations on the very first day of his presidency an even heavier lift.
The two officials also said they believe ICE has been historically underfunded for its wide mission. There are nearly 8 million immigrants on ICE's docket, one ICE officer for every 7,000 cases, ICE Director P.J. Lechleitner told NBC News in June. He said the ratio was "not good," and others inside ICE have said it is impossible for agents to keep tabs on all of the migrants' whereabouts inside the country.
"We are chronically underresourced and need more funding," Lechleitner said at the time.
In February, the agency said it might have to consider releasing migrants if it did not get more funding for detention beds coming off of 2023's record high number of border crossings. The border bill negotiated by a bipartisan group of senators earlier this year asked for $9.5 billion and the Biden administration's fiscal year 2025 budget request asked for $9.3 billion for the agency, but those levels have yet to be passed through Congress despite Republicans calling on the administration to increase immigration enforcement.
