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President Donald Trump’s administration is looking to use Defense Department funding to ramp up their effort to deport “millions and millions,” according to a new report.
The administration is considering using the funds to contract civilian companies that would be able to rapidly expand and staff detention facilities and increase the number of flights available for deportations, house migrants and provide transportation between arrest locations and detention areas, NBC News reports.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai told NBC News the Trump administration is “committed to delivering on the mandate that the American people gave to President Trump with a whole-of-government approach to secure our borders, enforce our immigration laws, mass deport criminal illegal migrants, and put America First.”
This comes after Trump promised on the campaign trail to deport “millions and millions” of people — a goal that seems unrealistic within the next year based on factors like detention space and staffing, Axios reports.
One of these key factors is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget, which NBC News reports was already in a shortfall before Trump took office. For example, the agency has space to detain some 40,000 people, NBC News reports, limiting the administration’s ability to carry out their promise.
The Trump administration has even asked Congress for additional funding, calling for $175 billion to go toward ICE.
“It’s driving him nuts they’re not deporting more people,” a source familiar with internal immigration discussions told NBC News.
However, the White House disputed the report, noting in a statement that the “Trump administration is aligned on securing our borders and ensuring that mass deportations are conducted quickly and effectively to put Americans and America First.”
Meanwhile, immigration officials have reportedly been told to achieve between 1,200 and 1,500 arrests a day, The Washington Post reported last month. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also contested this report, telling the Post their story was “false.”
This reported quota still leaves the White House far from its goal, especially given the fact that not all arrests lead to charges or deportations. In order for the Trump administration to even reach 1 million deportations by the end of the year, the administration would have to start deporting 2,700 people every day, NBC News reports.
The agency’s highest single-day total under Trump has been 1,100 arrests, according to numbers released by ICE on social media last week.