Increased funding for ICE is misuse of taxpayer dollars
As part of the recent budget bill, the bill provides an additional $75 billion to the Immigration and Customs Agency (ICE). Of the $75 billion, $45 billion is allocated for the expansion of detention centers and prisons. The agency’s previous annual budget ran between $9-10 billion. This is a 650% increase for the coming fiscal year. There is an increased effort by the Trump Administration to detain and deport immigrants of questionable status. But as the first six months have shown, residents who are here legally have also been detained without due process. Examples include Mahmoud Kahlil, a graduate student from Columbia University, and Rümeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student at Tufts University both detained for their support of human rights of Palestinian people.
The Trump Administration is using ICE detention as a political device to suppress the free speech of a person of legal status. There is a strong likelihood that passage of the recent bill will be a boon to private for-profit prison companies. An executive order by President Trump reversed a Biden Administration order to phase out the renewal of contracts for privately-run prisons. This is how tax-payer dollars are being used in a country that touts itself as a democratic nation.
Please contact Representatives Maggie Goodlander and Chris Pappas and Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan and share your concerns about this very undemocratic use of taxpayer dollars. Fascism breeds when those who speak are silenced.
Bob Moore
East Kingston