Democrats Push Back on Republican Homeland Security Spending

The proposed funding for immigration enforcement made it through the Homeland Security Committee as part of the Republicans’ massive spending bill

Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash

The Homeland Security committee’s portion of the budget reconciliation package will increase border enforcement by $70 billion. As part of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the funding will allocate over $46 billion for a border wall, $5 billion for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facilities, $4.1 billion to hire 3,000 Border Patrol agents and 5,000 CBP officers, $2.7 billion for surveillance, and about $1 billion for inspection technology for cargo at ports of entry.

Republicans have signaled that they would like the budget package to clear Congress by the Fourth of July. However, Democrats were unified in their resistance to the funding that targets noncitizens, arguing that the funding would only embolden an administration that is circumventing the law, deporting innocent migrants, and rounding up U.S. citizens. So far, the opposition has fallen short as amendments offered by Democrats were shut down.

“House Republican leadership is putting lipstick on this pig of a reconciliation package by pretending it’s about border security,” Rep. Benny…