US immigration agency is short of $2 billion for the year, Axios reports

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(Reuters) -The main U.S. immigration agency has told Congress it has a funding shortfall of $2 billion for this fiscal year, Axios reported on Friday citing unnamed sources.

Congress will send the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) an extra $500 million as part of the stop-gap spending bill, although that will not cover the funding it needs to continue work till end of September, the report said, citing two sources familiar with the communications.

The funding shortfall comes as ICE has stepped arrests since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January. He has vowed to deport record numbers of people who migrated to the U.S. illegally.

ICE detention facilities are filled to capacity at 47,600 detainees and the agency has been expanding its bed count – the number of beds available for detainees – with support from the U.S. Defense Department, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons.

The agency has an annual budget of approximately $8 billion, according to its website. The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a stop-gap bill to keep federal agencies funded.

The bill would extend government funding until the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Increases in defense, veterans’ care and border security would be offset by cuts to some domestic programs.

ICE was working with U.S. lawmakers to secure more detention funding, an official from the agency told reporters on Wednesday.

The White House and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Trump’s immigration plans, including hiring hundreds of people, more than doubling ICE detention space to 100,000 beds and adding many more planes for deportation flights, would rack up costs even more.

(Reporting by Devika Nair and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Alison Williams and Angus MacSwan)