Key national security programs transferred millions to ICE
As the predictions of Hurricane Florence’s impact on the east coast become direr
by the hour, FEMA’s budget is apparently $10 million lighter. The Trump
administration reportedly transferred that amount from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
earlier this year.
The Department of Homeland Security transferred $169 million from other
agencies to ICE for the detention and removal of migrants this year, according to
a document sent to Congress by DHS.
Many of the transfers came from key national security programs, including $1.8
million from the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office, $29 million from the U.S.
Coast Guard and more than $34 million from several TSA programs. DHS also
transferred $33 million from other ICE programs to pay for detention and
removal, making the total amount of money transferred $202 million.
The department has the authority to move funds around internally with the
approval of Congress and transfers are not unusual. The total DHS budget for
fiscal 2018 was $65 billion; FEMA’s total budget was $15.5 billion.
The money, according to the document, was used to increase detentions on the
southern border, remove undocumented immigrants and pay for beds in
detention centers.
FEMA’s 2017 budget was devastated by several major storms and was nearly
tapped out before Hurricane Irma hit Florida.
New USCIS policy makes it easier to officials to deny visas
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, issued a new policy
memorandum that has the potential to drastically alter the government’s
decision-making process on most immigration applications, on July 13. The new
policy memorandum affects two types of notifications commonly sent to
applicants for immigration benefits, the Request for Evidence, RFE, and the
Notice of Intent to Deny, NOID.
The new guidance puts increased power into the hands of the USCIS officer
reviewing the application and gives officers the ability to deny certain cases
without providing the applicant a chance to first respond.
Many immigration advocates are concerned with such a dramatic policy shift.
They fear that this will lead to an increase in the abuse of discretion by individual
USCIS officers. Although the memo notes that this new policy is not intended to
penalize “innocent filers,” the memo does not define this term. Under this new
policy, an applicant might not have any idea that USCIS intends to deny the case
before receiving a denial letter.
With immediate denials, the possibilities for applicants to undo those mistakes
are reduced.
Lancaster County Board approves chicken operations
County commissioners voted 3-2 to approve a proposed chicken farming
operation in southwest Lancaster County that will produce 190,000 chickens at a
time for a Costco processing plant.
However, within a few minutes of the meeting ending, opponents were already
considering filing a lawsuit to halt the operation near the Saline County line.
Chicken farm operator Randy Essink will be allowed to precede by following
standards set by his contracting company. The standards include building barns
400 feet from the road and a quarter-mile from the closest homes. He will also be
applying for a construction and operating permit from the Nebraska Department
of Environmental Quality, which will regulate his operation even though the
permit is not required.
Essink’s chicken farm will be a supplier for the Costco poultry processing plant
under construction in Fremont.
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