In a March 16, letter to the Speaker of the House, President Donald Trump quietly made a last-minute request for $3 billion dollars to fund what he characterized as 'Urgent Border Protection.'
Accompanying Trump's request was an interesting breakdown of exactly what the extra $3 billion would be spent on from the Director of Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney. "The request proposes funding to increase daily immigration detention capacity to 45,700 detention beds by the end of FY 2017, Mulvaney wrote. "This additional detention capacity is necessary to implement your policies for removing illegal aliens from the United States by enhancing interior enforcement efforts and ending 'catch and release' for those apprehended at the border."
In addition, the 3 billion will be used to fund a surge of 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and agents.
Trump budget request reveals specifics
Before he was elected, Trump's critics accused him of overstating his intentions to put a kibosh on illegal immigration into the United States, often mocking him and saying he wouldn't follow through. This latest 3-billion add-on request proves them wrong.
Here is specifically how the money would be spent:
- $11 million to establish a real-time data integration system that would support immigration enforcement operations, benefits adjudication, policy analysis, accurate data reporting, and for other border and immigration modeling analyses.
- $286 million for Border Patrol, including $95 million to support border surge operations, $65 million to build hiring capacity to recruit and hire 5,000 Border Patrol agents, $18 million for project management, oversight, and support for the border wall, $43 million to enhance situational awareness at the border, and $64 million for other technology, equipment, and infrastructure investments that directly contribute to the effectiveness of border security operations.
- $1.4 billion for construction, and Improvements, including $999 million for planning, design, and construction of the first installment of the border wall, $179 million for access roads, gates, and other tactical infrastructure projects, and $200 million for border security technology deployments.
- $1.2 billion for ICE Operations and support, including $1.15 billion to pay for detention, transportation, and removal of illegal aliens, and for alternatives to detention; $76 million 3 to build hiring capacity to recruit and onboard 10,000 ICE agents and officers; $5 million for homeland security investigations intelligence activities.
- $25 million for Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Operations and Support for the hiring and training of instructors to support law enforcement officer hiring and training.
- $63 million for Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Procurement, construction, and Improvements for infrastructure investments, including modular dormitory and classroom buildings, which would support law enforcement officer hiring and training.
