John,

With three months left in the fiscal year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is already an estimated $1 billion over budget.

That’s right, John: despite their supposed work to increase government efficiency and cut costs, the Trump administration has run out of money months ahead of schedule, and are gearing up to ask Congress for more.

This massive overspending raises serious concerns about ICE and the Department of Homeland Security spending beyond the budget Congress has authorized, and whether the Office of Management and Budget has enabled them to do so.

The American people deserve answers.

Why is ICE blowing past its budget? And why is the Trump administration ignoring the laws designed to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly — and transparently?

Under federal law, it’s illegal for agencies to spend money that Congress hasn’t appropriated. To make sure this doesn’t happen, the president, through the Office of Management and Budget, is supposed to apportion funds to agencies at a specific rate to ensure they don’t run out of money.

But this year, ICE is on track to spend much more money than authorized — raising concerns both about OMB’s management of taxpayer money and ICE’s use of those funds.

Under federal law, OMB is required to post apportionments of funds on a public website. But in March they took down the website that does that, leaving taxpayers in the dark about how the government is using their money and for what reasons.

We’re suing to challenge this illegal secrecy around federal spending and to force the agency to bring the website back. OMB should be managing our money well enough that it has nothing to hide.

Thank you,

Noah Bookbinder
President
CREW