4$210,000,000, to remain available until expended,
Ah, got it. Fair play.
Appoint a head of ICE who will fire every single officer and sell off or destroy every asset.
He tries, congress and the courts say no because that’s not how that works. (Just as they did for way more reasonable things than this that he tried to order to have happen. That’s the whole thing with Project 2025 is to undo the guard rails that prevent presidents from simply making massive changes to the system on a whim.)
What should he try next?
He can tell the courts to fuck off, and as far as congress goes, he only needs 50%+1 in the senate to approve an appointment, and he’s more than capable of whipping that vote given that the organization that sends migrants to camps is unpopular among dem constituents.
He can tell the courts to fuck off
Ah yes! I mean, you’re right; he can tell whoever he wants, whatever he wants, as Trump demonstrated. The issue is, what would happen with his orders to ICE to start doing things that were illegal as far as existing statutes about what ICE is supposed to do. And then that in the face of an order by the courts to do definitely obey the statutes.
Biden would probably be fine. He might lose some support in the election but whatever. Whoever implemented those orders would probably join the handful of Trump administration members who did the same and wound up in federal prison for it. Eventually, people would notice the pattern of their coworkers going to prison for obeying Biden’s instructions and stop listening to him. Nixon and Trump tested the boundaries of this system with varying levels of success, and a bunch of people in their orbits went to prison and a bunch more than that stopped listening to them.
So. Biden tells the courts to fuck off, people go to prison, the remaining staff do not obey his instructions as far as what ICE should do, because they don’t want to also go to prison. The border conditions remain a bone chilling nightmare. What should he try next?
start doing things that were illegal as far as existing statutes about what ICE is supposed to do
There’s nothing illegal about firing ICE officers and selling off assets, they do that all the time.
The border conditions remain a bone chilling nightmare
Decreasing ICE and CPB’s capacity to make things worse is better than nothing.
