The House Democrats’ first offer to President Trump in negotiations to fund his proposed United States-Mexico border wall includes a provision that would end all immigration enforcement for migrants trafficking children across the southern border.
The draft budget provides the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency with $7.4 billion, nearly $850 million less than requested by the Trump administration, and funds only 1,250 beds for adults and migrant children coming across the border this year, a decrease in detention space.
Attached to that funding, though, is an immigration enforcement ban first introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and supported by every Senate Democrat. The Democrats’ offer demands that all immigration enforcement end for any adult crossing the border with a child by the end of Fiscal Year 2019.
Rather than being held in detention for a period of time, those adults and the migrant children they trafficked across the U.S.-Mexico border would be released immediately into the interior of the country.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) previously called the plan the “Child Trafficking Encouragement Act” as it ensures that adults bringing children to the southern border would gain immediate access into the U.S. without fear of being deported or turned away.
The number of adult illegal aliens arriving at the southern border with children has continued surging under Trump. The latest Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data reveals the number of adults crossing the border with children has skyrocketed 280 percent compared to the same time last year.
Last year, the U.S. saw a record number of adult border crossers coming to the U.S. with children. This year, if border reforms are not implemented, DHS officials expect to break last year’s record. As of December 2018, overall illegal immigration is up 81 percent compared to the same time last year.
As Breitbart News reported, the House Democrat offer does not include any money to construct a wall, much less a barrier, at the U.S.-Mexico border but it does provide about $502 million for “humanitarian concerns,” funding that illegal aliens and border crossers would have access to in the form of food, transportation, medical care, and housing.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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