FEMA was just the beginning: NBC News reported Thursday that in addition to previously reported transfers out of that agency, the Department of Homeland Security this summer internally transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement $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,” among other transfers totaling $169 million.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported Tuesday night on the FEMA transfer, and Wednesday night on the Coast Guard transfer.
The transfers benefitted ICE’s detention and removal operations, NBC News reported, and documents given to Congress specifically mentioned ICE’s going millions over-budget in its effort to expand the capacity of its detention centers.
DHS also transferred, per NBC News, $33 million from other programs within ICE to the agency’s detention and removal operations.
The network cited documents sent to Congress from DHS, the parent agency housing ICE and many other aspects of the nation’s security apparatus.
DHS can transfer money internally with congressional approval, the network noted. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VM) told the Associated Press that Republican subcommittee chairs signed off on the transfers, without any Democratic support.
While DHS spokespeople have claimed the FEMA money did not come from its disaster relief coffers, the documents sent to Congress indicated it came from FEMA’s “operations and support” funds.
After hearing about this, there shouldn’t be a single Trump voter left in any hurricane-damaged areas (but I know that’s wishful thinking).
It’s hard not to get the impression that Trump’s “all the best” really suck at politics. Maybe they haven’t noticed but there’s an election coming up. The “detention” policy, or jailing kids policy, was horribly unpopular and that’s why it suffered the fate it did. But diverting money from essential security agencies to fund Miller’s perverted and wildly unpopular family sabotage program is politically stupid and particularly so given a major election is 2 months away. But by all means Donnie…keep it up.
So taking brown kids away from their parents is more important than this:
DNDO is the primary entity in the U.S. government for implementing domestic nuclear detection efforts for a managed and coordinated response to radiological and nuclear threats, as well as integration of federal nuclear forensics programs. Additionally, DNDO is charged with coordinating the development of the global nuclear detection and reporting architecture, with partners from federal, state, local, and international governments and the private sector.
Incredibly
Callous
Enterprise
In other words - extremely important.