The Trump administration is moving millions in federal disaster relief money to use for immigration enforcement instead.
The administration informed Congress it will move more than $270 million from agencies like the Federal Emergency Management to spend on detention bed space and to provide for temporary asylum hearings. Homeland Security anticipates the money will provide detention bed space for an estimated 50,000 migrants.
"The arbitrary imprisonment that we see now is part of the administration’s strategy to deter people from seeking refuge in the US even though our laws permit them to," said Naureen Shah of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The push for new money comes as the number of migrants arriving on the U.S. border has dropped and as a hurricane threatens Puerto Rico.
