'Coming down': Trump vows to dismantle billboards pushing rights for illegal immigrants if he wins
Former President Donald Trump is vowing to end the use of taxpayer funds to erect billboards in Texas offering help to the friends and family members of illegal immigrants in federal custody.
"Kamala [Harris] is now running billboards near the Border advertising FREE Legal Services for Illegal Alien Criminals. When I win, the billboards are coming down, and the Migrant Gangs are going home!" Trump said on X.
Fox News reported this week that the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO) has set up billboards in Texas saying: "Your brother in immigration custody has rights, we’re here to help."
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The OIDO is an independent office set up to aid immigrants with complaints about potential violations of immigration detention standards. It also provides oversight of immigration detention facilities. It was established in 2019.
The DHS says it was established by Congress with a "mandate to independently examine immigration detention to promote safe and humane conditions, including addressing complaints related to the conditions of noncitizens in immigration detention."
However, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol sources tell Fox News they are furious about the ads, given the ongoing pressures on funding due to the crisis at the southern border.
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Despite that funding squeeze, money is being spent on signs that they see as working against them and that they have described as "insulting."
Trump is not the only politician to be infuriated by the billboards, with multiple Texas lawmakers expressing outrage to Fox News.
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"The news that DHS is using taxpayer money to launch billboards advocating ‘rights’ for individuals in ‘immigration custody’ should be alarming because it’s a preview of the legal arguments that radical progressive democrats will use to argue against deportation of the millions dumped in America by Biden-Harris-Mayorkas," Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said.
"Time and again, we’ve seen DHS put an open borders agenda ahead of its mission to safeguard American families," Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said. "Whether it’s FEMA splurging hundreds of millions of dollars on migrant housing or OIDO running ads like this, our government is hemorrhaging money on the wrong priorities. It’s time for Congress to pull the plug on programs like these."
The controversy over the billboards comes as immigration has rocketed to the top of voters’ priorities for the 2024 election after a massive border crisis that started in 2021.
The Biden administration has said it needs more funding to fix what it says is a "broken" immigration system and, along with Vice President Kamala Harris, has pushed for a bipartisan border security bill introduced earlier this year.
The administration says a presidential order in June has led to a 55% drop in encounters, but critics have noted that comes after historic highs of encounters in prior years.
Trump has pledged to launch a mass deportation campaign and restore Trump-era border policies like wall construction and the Remain-in-Mexico policy. Both were ended by the Biden administration.