President Joe Biden's administration has proposed spending billions of dollars on border security, including $1 billion to address the root causes of migration from Central America.
Biden has taken heat throughout his first term for the annual increases in border crossings. As he is likely to once again face off against Donald Trump in the presidential election this November, illegal immigration has become the top issue for many Republicans across the country according to various polling.
Following silence on the death of 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student Laken Riley, allegedly committed by illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra, Biden mentioned the victim during Thursday's State of the Union address. He referred to Ibarra as an "illegal," which drew consternation from some Democrats. The president later regretted the terminology, saying that he rather should have used the word "undocumented."
The president's proposed 2025 fiscal year budget requests Congress approval for $405 million to hire 1,300 more federal Border Patrol agents; $239 million to hire 1,000 additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers to stop fentanyl and other contraband from entering the U.S.; funding to keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE's) 34,000 existing detention beds; $1 billion for aid to Central America; and nearly $1 billion to address the backlog of more than 2.4 million pending cases in U.S. immigration courts.
It also proposes $755 million to hire an additional 1,600 asylum officers to facilitate timely immigration cases' dispositions; $100 million for Homeland Security investigations/disruptions to transnational criminal organizations and drug traffickers; and $849 million for cutting-edge detection technology at ports of entry.
Newsweek has reached out to the White House via email for comment.
The money proposed for Central America is part of Biden's commitment to invest $4 billion in the region over four years, including supporting programs to advance economic prosperity and regional security.
One of those methods is through an initiative called the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity, which would provide $75 million for a capital increase to the Inter-American Investment Corporation—known as IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) Invest—to advance clean energy projects, modernize agriculture, strengthen transportation systems, and expand access to financing.
Another $35 million in additional targeted funding for regional migration management would be reserved in the budget, in addition to $25 million for the IDB's Migration Grant Facility to support integration efforts for migrants and host communities.
In his proposal, Biden says that Congress "needs to pass" the Senate's bipartisan border to provide swift investments and fix a "broken immigration system."
In February, Republican senators rejected a $118 billion border deal sponsored by one of their own, Sen. James Lankford, which included increasing ICE detention capacity from 34,000 to 50,000 while allocating $20 billion to immigration enforcement.
It also included $14 billion in aid to Israel, $60 billion for Ukraine, $4.83 billion to Indo-Pacific nations and $10 billion in humanitarian funding for Ukraine, Gaza and the West Bank.
Even if it passed the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson alluded to the bill not going far enough among members of his own conference. House Republicans have also been wary about continued foreign aid to Ukraine.
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Nick Mordowanec is a Newsweek reporter based in Michigan. His focus is reporting on Ukraine and Russia, along with social ... Read more
