Spending by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on weapons exploded by 700% this year, an analysis of government contracting data by news site Popular Information found.
Records from the Federal Procurement Data System shows a sevenfold spending jump on “small arms, ordnance, and ordnance accessories manufacturing” compared to last year’s levels, according to the news outlet.
From Jan. 20 — Trump’s Inauguration Day — through Oct. 18, ICE spent $71.5 million on weaponry, primarily guns and body armor, Popular Information’s data dive revealed. In addition, the total included purchases of chemical weapons and “guided missile warheads and explosive components.”
In contrast, ICE spent just $9.7 million on similar equipment during the same period last year. This year’s outlay also greatly exceeds the agency’s spending during Trump’s first term in office, when the four year average for small-arms purchases was $8.4 million, Popular Information reports.
The revelation of the massive spending jump comes as the Trump’s immigration crackdown draws increasing criticism for using violent tactics against both immigrants and protesters. Much of the recent attention has focused on Chicago, where President Donald Trump has ordered up a flurry of federal deployments.
“All of this is unprecedented,” former ICE Acting Director John Sandweg told Politico of the escalation. “I don’t think we’ve ever seen a nationwide immigration enforcement effort like this.”
During the past few weeks, federal officers pumped five bullets into a woman in Chicago and fatally shot a man during an arrest attempt in one of the city’s suburbs.
In both cases, agents said the people they shot threatened to hit them with vehicles. However, the woman’s attorneys deny the allegation, and body-cam footage from the second incident shows the officer purportedly put in danger describing his injuries as “nothing major.”
“These are just the tip of the iceberg,” Fred Tsao, senior policy counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, told National Public Radio of recent reporting on ICE agents’ use of aggressive tactics. “People being tackled, people getting pepper sprayed or tear gassed. We’ve seen people getting threatened. And we’ve seen at least two incidents involving gunfire.”
Indeed, the ACLU of Illinois earlier this month sued the Trump administration for using violent tactics to trample on the constitutionally protected free-speech rights of protesters.
“In recent weeks … the Trump Administration has sent federal officials and agents to brutally suppress free speech [in the Chicago area] through intentional and escalating violence, including the dangerous and indiscriminate use of near-lethal weapons such as tear gas, rubber bullets, pepper-balls, flash grenades, and other unwarranted and disproportionate tactics,” the ACLU of Illinois said in a statement about its suit.
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