An Ohio congressman is looking to combine an idea that’s unpopular with the US public to fund one of the most controversial, and loathed, parts of the US government. Representative Mike Rulli, a Republican, is pushing the idea of using a federal gambling tax to fund Immigration and Customs Enforement (ICE), the masked agents who are executing the current administration’s mass deportation plan.
Rep. Rulli recently introduced The Giving Alien Migrants Back Through Lawful Excise Redistribution (GAMBLER) Act, which would be used to fund a Border Enforcement Trust Fund, whose proceeds would go directly to ICE. The Ohio Congressman announced his plan on a recent X post saying, “Today I’m introducing the GAMBLER Act to redirect nearly $300 million in gambling taxes and put it to work securing our border. No new taxes. No more excuses. This bill gives ICE the backup it needs to enforce the law and restore order.”
Under current US law, taxes derived from gaming are put into a general fund with no specific, earmark. The idea of that money being used to fund educational programs or build roads is something that keep Rulli up at night. In his view, that money be better spent throwing immigrants with no criminal record into foreign gulags. He explained the idea in a recent Fox News interview saying, “It’d be a shame to take all that money and put it in the general fund, and it would just be lost when we could use it just for our border, which we all saw in this last election is the number issue in the country.”
As of this writing, Rulli has not released the text of his bill, which is currently sitting with the Ways and Means Committee on the Judiciary.