President Joe Biden's supplemental budget request would hand over more taxpayer dollars to Israel and Ukraine than the U.S. government approved to operate the entire Department of Homeland Security over the past year, but it would still bring some wins for the border.
The White House's $105 billion ask of Congress includes $75 billion for war efforts in the two countries, but it also asks for $14 billion that would mark the greatest staffing increase ever enacted for the U.S. Border Patrol and Justice Department-run immigration court system.
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Biden has proposed hiring 1,600 asylum officers, a move that would increase by 2 1/2 times the number of government employees available to interview and decide asylum claims of immigrants who illegally cross the border and are in federal custody or have been released into the U.S. and allowed to remain in the country through proceedings.
The asylum officer additions coupled with plans to add 375 immigration judge teams would make it the largest hiring surge in history compared to previous administrations that have typically funded the onboarding of 100 judges, much less teams, at a time.
Nationwide, fewer than 700 judges face burgeoning dockets packed with more than 2 million immigration cases.
The supplemental request also asked for more Border Patrol agents to be hired than any previous request under Biden. The fiscal 2024 budget called for up to 20,200 Border Patrol agents nationwide, but the supplemental would add another 1,300 agents for a grand total of up to 21,500 agents, an all-time high.
President Donald Trump vowed to hire 5,000 agents when he took office in early 2017, when roughly 19,500 agents were on the force. The number of agents has never topped 21,500 in Border Patrol's 99-year existence, according to Border Patrol statistics.
At present, Border Patrol is staffed by about 19,000 agents due to a surge in retirements and resignations in recent years, which agents previously told the Washington Examiner was due to frustration working under the Biden administration. Biden took office in January 2021 and rescinded all Trump-era border policies, including those that required immigrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico rather than be released into the country.
As a result, the number of illegal crossing arrests had soared to the highest levels in history, and agents have been ordered to release more than 2 million illegal immigrants into the U.S. rather than return them to their country of origin.
The proposal did not include aggressive efforts to deter or stop illegal immigration through messaging in top sending countries, installing 30-foot border wall in popular crossing areas, or increasing the number of beds to detain immigrants through court hearings.
The supplemental would take aim at the fentanyl crisis, which has become the No. 1 cause of death for U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 45.
DHS agency U.S. Customs and Border Protection would purchase 100 new inspection machines for the southern border ports of entry where vehicles pass through.
One thousand more law enforcement will be hired to respond to cartels in Mexico that move fentanyl into the country, though the White House did not specify the agency that would hire the new officers.
The budget does not break down the amount of money each initiative would require, including other propositions that include giving local governments and nonprofit groups more money to house, transport, feed, and assist immigrants who have been released into the U.S., which the government has already diverted hundreds of millions of Federal Emergency Management Agency dollars to cover those costs.
The Biden administration will now throw out an unspecified amount of money to continue those efforts despite a federal audit that determined those recipients failed to adhere to the law and abused funding.
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A DHS Office of Inspector General report released this year found organizations that were given FEMA money to respond to the border crisis regularly failed to submit receipts with reimbursement requests and used money on illegal immigrants who were never arrested but were receiving federal dollars.
Biden also cited the supplemental as a chance to boost funding for lawful immigration pathways, or means for non-U.S. citizens to enter the country legally rather than illegally cross the border on foot. Those pathways include offices in other countries where immigrants can see if they qualify to be admitted to the U.S.