WASHINGTON (TN) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has stopped purchasing cell phone minutes for people in its custody, the agency announced Tuesday.

Noncitizens began receiving 520 free minutes each month in spring 2020 after the immigration agency banned in-person visits due to rising COVID-19 cases. The agency said it has since allowed visits again, expanded the ability for detainees to speak to their lawyers via video call and provided free access to pro bono legal aid via tablets.

ICE uses funds allocated by Congress for all services, and when some of the money dried up, the phone minutes disappeared too, according to the agency.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would like to reinstate the 520-minute phone program if sufficient funding is made available – but unfortunately, funding remains an issue and the limited resources available are needed to carry out our congressionally mandated mission,” the press release said.

According to ICE, these minutes allowed noncitizens to make unmonitored international calls, which the agency said was the right thing to do during the pandemic.

“During the COVID-19 health emergency, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement followed CDC guidelines to protect those in our custody, including by suspending in-person visits,” the press release said. “To ensure noncitizens could continue to visit their families, loved ones, and attorneys, the agency paid for 520 phone minutes per month for each person – at no cost to those detained.”

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Cutting the minutes in the budget will save $10.2 million, ICE added. The agency had previously proposed reallocating the money to offset budget shortfalls and warned Congress in February that a lack of additional funding would hurt some of its other initiatives.

“Cities and communities along the border and in the interior of the United States where migrants await their immigration court proceedings would suffer,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told NBC News at the time.

A congressional bill that would have addressed some lawmakers’ concerns about the immigration system failed in the Senate earlier this year. The bill would have funded border protection programs that lawmakers linked to an increase in immigration.

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