WASHINGTON—The Trump administration plans to use $271 million of Department of Homeland Security funds, including some designated to help hurricane-stricken areas, to detain and remove immigrants who cross the southern U.S. border illegally.

DHS plans to divert money that lawmakers had designated for other purposes at the agency to increase its capacity to handle people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, many of whom are Central Americans seeking asylum from violence in their home countries.

“Without additional funding for single adult detention beds and transportation from the U.S. Border Patrol to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] detention facilities, ICE will not be able to support the influx of migrants from U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehensions,” DHS said in a statement on Tuesday.

The money will be diverted from funds that Senate and House lawmakers designated to the various departments in an agreement struck in February that ended a five-week partial government shutdown—the longest in U.S. history—resulting from a standoff over immigration policy.

The request comes two months after Congress approved a $4.6 billion emergency bill funding humanitarian aid for migrants at the southern border. That deal didn’t allow for any new funding of ICE detention beds.