MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia had two words of advice for the Trump administration this week - lawyer up. After Democrats won majorities in the House and Senate, Garcia is set to become the next chair of the House Oversight Committee, so the watchdog committee. And he has promised to look into, among other things, ICE enforcement. NPR's Jasmine Garsd is here to discuss what that might look like. Hey, Jas.
JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE: Hi.
KELLY: Hey. So one of the big concerns with ICE agents and ICE detention centers has been lack of oversight. What might change?
GARSD: OK. So first of all, I think it's worth mentioning that the current Congress basically gave immigration enforcement a blank check. In 2025 and 2026, Congress gave around $240 billion - that's billion with a B - to ICE and Customs and Border Patrol. Now, the incoming Congress which just got voted in could stop giving them even more money, but, you know, the truth is ICE and DHS have gotten enough funds to run mass deportation operations for the remainder of Trump's term.
There are a couple of things that could happen here. Congress could claw back that money, but, you know, the hurdle is President Trump would very likely veto that. There could also be restrictions on usage of those funds - warrant requirements, banning masks, restricting agents from going into schools, churches, hospitals. I spoke to Naureen Shah at the ACLU, who told me she thinks in order to change ICE behavior, one of the most powerful things that could happen is congressional oversight through subpoenas.
NAUREEN SHAH: ICE has to be afraid. They have to be afraid of losing their funding. They have to be afraid of being subpoenaed and asked extremely hard questions before a live audience of the American people.
KELLY: Jas, a question about facilities. You've covered the boom of the whole private detention center industry, which houses immigrant detainees. What are they saying?
GARSD: So the Trump administration has spent billions of that money given by Congress to expand ICE detention facilities, many of which have been accused of having dire, even deadly, conditions. I mean, we've seen a historic amount of deaths in ICE detention. I tune into every quarterly investors call for the two main contractors for ICE detention centers. That's GEO Group and CoreCivic. And this morning, I listened in on the CoreCivic call, and almost every question asked was about this blue wave. Here's an exchange between CoreCivic President Lucibeth Mayberry and several investors asking how will the result of midterms affect ICE operations?
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LUCIBETH MAYBERRY: You've seen them continue to enter into contracts. They also, you know, have, again, began increasing enforcement activities and growing the number. They have the secure funding to do so. You know, we would urge the, you know, ICE administration to move quickly.
GARSD: So she's basically saying ICE has the funding, but they should hurry up and purchase space. And I think that statement is this moment in a nutshell.
KELLY: And what's the Trump administration saying about this moment?
GARSD: So yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin simply tweeted, quote, "deportations will continue." On the other hand, in a post on X, JD Vance wrote that he thinks the big loss this week is due to voters' concerns over economy, inflation, the war. He left out immigration enforcement. He said he is open to changing enforcement tactics by focusing more on businesses that hire undocumented workers, but he says immigration amnesty is not the solution.
KELLY: NPR's Jasmine Garsd, thank you for joining us.
GARSD: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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