WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ranking Member of the Budget Committee, joined 20 of their Senate Democratic colleagues in calling for a comprehensive assessment of supplemental funds appropriated to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). In a letter to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the senators asked for a detailed accounting of the approximately $75 billion appropriated to ICE and $65 billion appropriated to CBP by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“This lack of transparency is part of a broader pattern in which the Trump administration has expanded domestic security operations while withholding basic cost information from Congress. We have serious concerns that this pattern reflects an increasingly authoritarian and unchecked approach to executive power,” wrote the senators.
Joining Peters and Merkley in sending the letter were U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Andy Kim (D-NJ), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Chris Murphy (D-CT), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Mark Warner (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) joined the letter.
Full text of the letter is available here.
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