Spending Bill Does Not Fund 1,000 New Deportation Agents Trump Requested

The omnibus spending bill passed by the Republican-controlled House and Senate does not fund the 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that President Trump requested last year.

According to a summary of the spending bill, ICE will be restricted to hiring only “65 additional law enforcement officers,” a drastically lower amount than the 1,000 ICE deportation officers that Trump had asked the Republican Congress to fund.

Likewise, the spending bill does not meet Trump’s previous requirements when it comes to hiring new Border Patrol agents. For example, Trump requested “$300 million to recruit, hire, and train 500 new Border Patrol Agents” last year.

The spending bill, though, only funds $7 million to hire about 350 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) “law enforcement officers” who may not end up being trained as Border Patrol agents.

The lack of funding for ICE and Border Patrol is likely to result in continued pressure and strain on the federal immigration agencies. Both agencies have been under-funded for years while trying to detain the increased number of illegal aliens crossing the southern border every day, and also attempting to find, arrest, and deport the 12 to 30 million illegal aliens currently living in the U.S.

Trump’s lack of increased border and interior immigration enforcement funding through the spending bill may translate into continued stagnant wages for American workers, whose pay has been flat-lined by a continued flow of cheap, illegal and legal immigrant workers.

As Breitbart News reported, the spending bill will also increase the number of illegal aliens who are released into the U.S. through the Catch and Release program that has yet to end.

Additionally, the spending bill bans Trump from being able to build a wall along the southern border using the prototype walls that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) commissioned.