Donald Trump Just Revealed The Funding He Is Requesting From Congress To Build The Wall
The White House budget proposal sent to Congress Monday includes specifics on how President Donald Trump plans to fund border security.
The budget proposal calls for $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending for the 2019 fiscal year. $23 billion out of this budget will go toward border security and immigration enforcement, including funding for a massive wall on the U.S. southern border, according to USA Today.
Last week’s $300 billion budget cap increase by Congress for fiscal 2018 and 2019 have paved the way for increased funding for border security.
The specific funding measures in Trump’s budget follows a long-held campaign promise to fix the country’s porous borders and stem the flow of illegal immigration.
The White House wants to see $18 billion allotted for construction of a massive border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, among other budget proposals.
The White House is requesting $782 million to hire nearly 2,800 more Customs and Border Protection and ICE officers. Another $2.7 billion has been requested to pay for ICE to have approximately 52,000 individuals a day in detention — the highest level for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in history, according to The Hill.
Border security was only a single part of the White House budget proposal that aims to tackle numerous issues in the country. Trump would also like to see $21 billion directed toward infrastructure spending and $17 billion to fight the growing opioid epidemic.
In a Twitter statement Monday morning, the president said he would like to see more tax dollars be spent at home instead of being sent abroad.
“This will be a big week for Infrastructure. After so stupidly spending $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in OUR Country!” the Republican president tweeted.
However, before Trump can tackle an infrastructure package, he will have to work with Congress on a resolution to the immigration debate.
Republican lawmakers want to see more done on illegal immigration. At the same time, Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding a legislative fix to the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, an Obama-era executive order that protects young illegal immigrants from deportations.
President Trump last year announced he would be rescinding the program. However, he and other Republican lawmakers have expressed strong interest in codifying the program into law.
In January, Trump introduced his immigration plan, a generous proposal that would allow for around 1.8 million young illegal immigrants to remain in the country, a far higher number than is currently included under DACA.
Along with increased funding for border security and construction of a wall, the president wants to end immigration programs that have arbitrarily allowed terrorists to enter the country.
The White House wants to do away with the visa lottery system and chain migration. Two separate terrorist attacks rocked New York City within a month of each other late last year — both of the perpetrators came into the country using chain migration and the lottery program.
“We’re gonna end both of them,” the president said after the second attack occurred in December. “We’re going to end them. Fast.”
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