Immigrant Daily

NIF Report on DHS’ Immigration Detention Program Costs

The National Immigration Forum (NIF) has released a report stating that the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration detention program, operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will cost taxpayers over $1.7 billion during FY 2010. The report highlights that the custody Operations budget has doubled since 2003, and ICE continues to obtain funding for additional detention bedspace and staffing. In its FY 2009 Salaries and Expenses Report to Congress, ICE requested $46 million to add 74 positions within ICE to support additional bedspace. The report covers various expenditure aspects of ICE detention system such as privatization of ICE-owned detention facilities, snapshot of a day in detention costs, case example of Sarjina Emy, and asylum seekers in detention. The report concludes that based on these and other findings in 2005, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a report recommending new parole policies for asylum seekers. However, in November 2007, an ICE Policy Directive established additional criteria for release from detention. The new policy increases the risk that more asylum seekers are unnecessarily subject to detention.

For complete information, please click The Math of Immigration Detention