Distractions over implementing President Donald Trump's immigration policy are causing issues for vital services, a former Secret Service agent has claimed.
Trump's administration has prioritized mass deportations, workplace raids, and expanded detention operations targeting undocumented immigrants across the nation. The Trump administration has deported thousands of people to about a dozen countries, often to places where they have no ties.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations have intensified significantly, with agents conducting sweeps in schools, workplaces, and residential areas. ICE's budget has grown from less than $6 billion annually a decade ago to $85 billion in a single year under Trump, surpassing the combined budgets of all other federal law enforcement agencies.
The Brennan Center for Justice noted ICE is now funded at levels "larger than the annual budget of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined," including the FBI.
Funding increases for ICE left other agencies, particularly the Secret Service, dealing with a logjam, according to former agent Jonathan Wackrow. The CNN analyst, who aided previous White House Correspondents' Dinner security measures, says Trump's team has failed to maintain a level of focus and detail necessary for the Secret Service.
CNN's reporting team shared, "But instead, the Trump administration focused on training new agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement for its deportation push, creating a logjam at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Wackrow said."
Wackrow claims that Trump had been too closely focused on funding ICE and finding agents to aid the immigration policies, and that funding for other agencies could have been secured. The ideal time for securing further funding has passed, with Wackrow suggesting the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was the moment to push for an increase.
“The moment to do it was at the very beginning of this administration, when you had the momentum out of Butler, out of the bipartisan recommendations,” Wackrow said. “You had some budgetary support to push through a hiring campaign and get those people through the pipeline. But then the focus was on ICE.”