ICE could release thousands of migrants without more funding from Congress, official says

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is considering downsizing its detention capacity and releasing thousands of migrants from custody due to a budget shortfall that Congress has so far refused to address, a senior agency official told CBS News Wednesday.

Without sufficient funding, officials could be forced to release between 4,000 and 6,000 migrants from long-term immigration detention centers, according to the official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal cost-saving plans.

ICE oversees a network of county jails and for-profit prisons across the U.S. to detain migrants it is seeking to deport, such as those who cross the southern border illegally or immigrants transferred to the agency after being charged or convicted of crimes. As of the end of January, ICE was detaining more than 38,000 immigrants, most of them recent border-crossers, agency data show.