The more expensive it is to operate ICE, the harder it is to justify its continued operation.

The project is worth ~$100k-$200k. It’s a rounding error in their budget (ICE annual budget is about $8 billion a year for FY2018; for context, US DHS is ~$92 billion/yr)

No one is ever going to deprecate ICE because it’s too expensive. They’ll just pull the money from someplace like NASA (unfortunate reality, not a policy I endorse).

So it's a rounding error for DHS but an expensive soaking for the taxpayer? That doesn't bear out.

No one is going to deprecate ICE because it's too expensive, but they might do it due to extensive political pressure from all sectors. I'm okay with paying 0.001 USD or so to send that message.

Do you think there could be a reasonable way to fix that issue?

Maybe a compromise between voters picking where their taxes go and a minimum for what tax payers have to pay for a certain area?