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The Homeland Security Department has been given an infusion of cash to carry out controversial immigration enforcement operations around the country, but the Democratic-controlled Congress wants the agency to prioritize finding and deporting the most dangerous illegal immigrants.

Congress gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement about $5 billion in the department's fiscal 2009 appropriations bill, which was signed into law Tuesday by President Bush as part of the continuing resolution to keep the federal government functioning in the new fiscal year.

The bill specifically directs ICE to spend $1 billion on finding and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes.

The push to target criminal illegal immigrants was led by House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman David Price, D-N.C., congressional aides said.

His subcommittee put $800 million toward that purpose at first. But during negotiations with the Senate, which passed a spending bill without money aimed specifically at criminal illegal immigrants, appropriators agreed to boost the funding by another $200 million.

With the election nearing, the $1 billion and the directive to ICE could give political cover to lawmakers -- especially Democrats -- by allowing them to tell voters they backed tough immigration enforcement while opposing controversial enforcement actions -- such as workplace raids -- that ensnare illegal immigrants who pose no real threat to other people or the communities where they live.

Some aides cautioned against reading too much into the directive, saying Congress still expects ICE to conduct work site enforcement operations. The bill gives ICE about $127 million specifically for work site enforcement, which is about $34 million more than the Bush administration requested.

"ICE has many priorities in terms of its mission under the law," one aide said. "But we believe that the criminal aliens ought to be the highest priority."

Immigrant advocate groups criticized the funding, saying it will allow ICE to continue aggressive work site raids that terrify employees and sometimes round up legal U.S. workers.

"We don't think it makes sense for Congress to continue to give money to ICE to fund work site raids that are so sweeping and so untargeted that they ensnare U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents," said Joanne Lin, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "And I would think that U.S. taxpayers wouldn't want that, either."

The ACLU filed a lawsuit in February against the Bush administration, claiming ICE agents refused to allow workers swept up in one work site raid access to lawyers. The group won a settlement in March, under which the government agreed to allow anyone detained in the raid to have access to an attorney.

John Amaya, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said ICE has not shown the ability to discriminate between criminal illegal immigrants and those who pose no harm during work site raids.

"I think this is Congress' way of punting on the issue. They basically are saying that we're satisfied with more of the same. And the administration is as well," Amaya said. "If you're giving them a blank check to increase enforcement and raids ... you're basically giving them a green light to go and terrorize the community."

Lin said the ACLU is backing a bill introduced last week by Sens. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., intended to protect U.S. citizens and illegal immigrants from being detained and deported by ICE.

"In the workplace, thousands of hardworking lawful permanent residents, United States citizens, and immigrants have been questioned, handcuffed, and detained without adequate protections to safeguard their constitutional rights," the bill states.

Although the work site raids get much attention, ICE targets far more illegal immigrants in U.S. jails than at workplaces around the country, an agency spokesman said.

During fiscal 2008, for example, ICE filed deportation charges against about 220,000 illegal immigrants in U.S. jails. Comparatively, the agency charged about 5,000 illegal immigrants at worksites.

To that end, the spending bill gives ICE $150 million more than the administration requested to find and deport criminal illegal immigrants in U.S. jails.