(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico, is lauding the Biden administration’s request for an emergency increase in funding for U.S.-Mexico border security.
The president requested $4 billion in border security funding for the country’s Fiscal Year 2024 supplemental budget.
Here is a breakdown of how that money would be spent, according to a press release from Heinrich’s office:
$2.7 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $2.2 billion for border management, shelter and services mutual aid reimbursement, $416 million for counter-fentanyl activities like non-intrusive inspection system deployment.$800 million for the Department of State to identify root causes of immigration that will help Administration understand the forces driving families and children to flee dangerous conditions at home. $350 million for Department of Health and Human Services counter-fentanyl activities to include prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and recovery support. $100 million for the Department of Labor to assist with child labor investigations.$59 million for Executive Office for Immigration Review immigration judge teams; and fentanyl testing, tracing, network targeting, and data systems.
Heinrich said the funding shows the Biden administration is taking the border situation seriously.
“By investing in resources that will enhance border security to repair our nation’s immigration system and ensuring wildland firefighters receive the living wages they deserve, this supplemental request reflects the kind of investments Congress should be making to protect the health and safety of all New Mexicans,” Heinrich said in the release. “I’m especially pleased to see that the Administration is pursuing a first-of-its-kind comprehensive fentanyl tracking system that I called for in the Senate’s Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill. This system will be critical to better understanding the movement of illicit drugs and more effectively combatting the fentanyl drug epidemic that’s devastating our communities.”
U.S. Office of Management and Budget director Shalanda Young told House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-California, in a letter that the funding will help the administration enact effective border security measures.
Young said that Title 42 expiring makes spending increases on border security necessary.
“The administration requests additional resources to continue to manage the Southwest border safely and effectively, including through ongoing efforts to reduce the influx of illicit drugs, such as fentanyl, across our borders and counter the threat these substances pose to our public health,” Young wrote. “We are operating within a fundamentally broken immigration system—everyone agrees on that point—but only the Congress has the power to update our immigration and asylum laws, and we continue to stand ready to work with the Congress on solutions.
“Despite the fundamentally broken system, unlawful border crossings are down significantly since the president implemented his border enforcement and management plan after the end of Title 42,” she added. “The administration has achieved this in a safe, orderly, and humane manner, in part by pairing increased access to legal pathways with new consequences for those who fail to use them.”
