Donald Trump has proposed an ambitious plan to protect the Southern U.S. border, and deal with the illegal alien crisis. One of the attack approaches of the plan’s detractors is to state there’s no visible payment mechanism. Let’s look at one aspect.
On Page #3 the plan outlines:
Triple the number of ICE officers.
As the President of the ICE Officers’ Council explained in Congressional testimony: “Only approximately 5,000 officers and agents within ICE perform the lion’s share of ICE’s immigration mission…Compare that to the Los Angeles Police Department at approximately 10,000 officers. Approximately 5,000 officers in ICE cover 50 states, Puerto Rico and Guam, and are attempting to enforce immigration law against 11 million illegal aliens already in the interior of the United States. Since 9-11, the U.S. Border Patrol has tripled in size, while ICE’s immigration enforcement arm, Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), has remained at relatively the same size.” This will be funded by accepting the recommendation of the Inspector General for Tax Administration and eliminating tax credit payments to illegal immigrants. (link)
Putting aside the IG tax credit payment funding mechanism for a moment; a recent study by the Border Patrol (DHS) Inspector General, the issue of wasted money on the Border Drone program was highlighted. (more…)








