Add this to a long, long list of really, really dumb Biden administration policies: U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Wednesday the cancellation of a Biden administration policy that allowed CBP to not only accept, but to solicit donations and gifts for illegal aliens in CBP custody.
Fox News' Bill Melugin took to his X account to break that story, and again, we see that the left doesn't understand incentives.
NEW: CBP confirms to @FoxNews that effective immediately, it is ending its participation in a Biden era policy that allows DHS to accept and solicit gifts and donations for the care of illegal aliens in federal custody. The original policy was signed by Biden's Deputy DHS… pic.twitter.com/gSuPMQHpoi
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 23, 2026
Mr. Melugin writes:
NEW: CBP confirms to @FoxNews that effective immediately, it is ending its participation in a Biden era policy that allows DHS to accept and solicit gifts and donations for the care of illegal aliens in federal custody. The original policy was signed by Biden's Deputy DHS Secretary, John K. Lien, on 5/3/2022.
CBP tells FOX they recently discovered the directive, and immediately moved to rescind it.
CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott has now sent out a memo announcing that CBP is terminating their participation in that policy, writing in part:
"This order is no longer needed or appropriate. With the significant decrease in encounters and apprehensions, CBP no longer requires private donations or fights for distribution to aliens in custody. Additionally, this order does not align with the Trump administration's enforcement posture at our borders. For these reasons, I am withdrawing CBP from DHS Delegation 07107, effective immediately."
Fox News has more here.
People in CBP or indeed any form of federal custody are not reliant on handouts and donations from the general public. These departments are, as Commissioner Scott points out, adequately funded to care for these people, especially since they are seeing a lot less business than the were a few years ago. And, in any case, once again, the Biden administration had the incentives all wrong. Crime, including the crime of entering the country illegally, isn't something we should be subsidizing or rewarding in any way, with tax dollars or private donations. The people in federal custody have ample food, medical treatment, and warm beds. We treat them this way, even the more egregious criminal goblins, because unlike some people in the places these people came from, we're not savages.
But soliciting donations and allowing gifts? On the margins it seems very certain that this only aggravated the problem. It was one more incentive out of many for people to try to head into the United States, knowing that even if they were caught, they would be released, and if they were detained for any reason, they would have not only the standard-issue three hots and a cot but also gifts and donations from well-meaning but deluded Americans.
Removing this policy was the right thing to do. And, if any American leftists think that the United States Treasury is incapable of properly funding these operations, let them write a personal check to the United States Department of the Treasury, care of Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. He'll know how to put their donations to best use.
Editor’s Note: We voted for mass deportations, not mass amnesty. Help us continue to fight back against those trying to go against the will of the American people.
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