President Joe Biden included a $4.7 billion emergency fund for border security in his proposed budget for 2025 that would enable the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to quickly deploy resources to handle migrant surges, according to NBC News, which reviewed a portion of the budget.
The emergency fund would allow DHS to access funds as needed when the flow of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. at the southern border hits a certain number that is not specified in the budget document.
The money would be transferred to the general funds of Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency if it is not used to deal with a migrant surge.
According to NBC, Biden's request comes as CBP and ICE are facing substantial budget deficits.
If Congress does not help cover a $500 million ICE budget gap, the agency reportedly will have to begin scaling back essential operations by May.
Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller told NBC that the refusal of Republicans to support border provisions in the national security supplemental bill earlier this year will hobble his agency if the number of migrants rises as the temperature increases.
"I certainly continue to be cognizant that the numbers of migrants coming across the southern border could increase and probably will increase in the weeks and months ahead," Miller said. "I think that's one of the reasons that as we looked at the national security bill, it gave us additional authorities and resources to effectuate a consequence so that we could quickly screen off folks that didn't have a valid asylum claim and send them back."
Biden's budget request reportedly seeks $405 million to hire 1,300 additional Border Patrol agents, $1 billion for aid for Central America, and nearly $1 billion to tackle the more than 2.4 million pending immigration cases, as well as funding to retain ICE's 34,000 existing detention beds.
The budget also asks Congress for funds to place unaccompanied migrant children with sponsors and relatives and funding to hire an additional 1,000 CBP officers to combat fentanyl smuggling across the U.S.-Mexico border.
Another $849 million is being sought for technology to detect concealed fentanyl, NBC reported.
Instead of being deployed to the southern border, millions of dollars in fentanyl scanners are sitting idle in warehouses.
Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., sent a letter to congressional appropriators last week, calling on them to approve the money needed to install the drug scanning machines.
"These scanners allow Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to scan vehicles and cargo in order to detect fentanyl and other dangerous contraband that criminals are trying to smuggle into our country," Tester wrote. "This technology isn't worth its weight until Congress quits the political games and provides the funding needed to get it deployed and operational in the field."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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