EXCLUSIVE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ended a COVID-era program that granted hundreds of free minutes of video calls to illegal immigrants, Fox News Digital has learned -- a move that is estimated to save taxpayers more than $10 million a year.
The federal agency began offering illegal immigrants in custody 520 minutes of free domestic and international phone and video calls per month in May 2020 due to the then-emerging COVID-19 pandemic and visitation restrictions that were implemented as a consequence. The cost of the program is $10.2 million a year.
The public health emergency for the pandemic ended in May 2023, but the program remained in effect even as in-person visitation has resumed with the ending of social distancing requirements.
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ICE says that while it continued the program until it started winding down throughout June of this year, cost-saving measures have since become a priority due to other resources needed at the southern border.
"Individuals in detention still have access to facility Wi-Fi to make telephone and video calls to contact their attorneys and families and may also make calls at their own expense [using] facility telephones and video tablets as available," an ICE official said.
The agency also said that if it is given appropriate resources by Congress, it could continue to allow free calls in the future.
"Although ICE is grateful for the fiscal year 2024 appropriations it received from Congress, current funding is insufficient to maintain operational readiness on multiple fronts while offering free calls, which cost American taxpayers over $0.50 per minute," the agency said.
Funding has been a key issue of debate among lawmakers and officials over how to handle the ongoing crisis at the southern border,
Democrats and the Biden administration have accused Republicans of failing to support measures to provide additional funding for resources to deal with the border crisis -- including a bipartisan bill unveiled this year that has so far failed to make it out of the Senate.
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Republicans have noted that they have passed their own comprehensive border package in the House, which includes additional funding as well as strict limits on asylum and parole. It has failed to pick up Democratic support.
Meanwhile, some COVID-era restrictions are still in place. The Biden administration has recently urged a federal judge to end a ban on new detainees at a facility in Adelanto, California.
The facility in Adelanto, California, can house nearly 2,000 inmates but was blocked by a September 2020 court order in response to a lawsuit from immigrant activists calling for fewer inmates due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has held just a handful of inmates ever since.
