House Democrat Budget Revokes Border Wall Funding, Expands ‘Sanctuary’ for Illegal Aliens

A House Democrat budget for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revokes funding for a border wall along the United States-Mexico border and expands on President Joe Biden’s initiative to provide sanctuary to as many illegal aliens in the U.S. as possible.

On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled House Appropriations Committee released their DHS funding bill for fiscal year 2022 that decreases funds for border controls and interior immigration enforcement, including stripping funding from border wall construction.

“I adamantly oppose my Democratic colleagues’ proposed bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security,” Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) told Breitbart News in a statement.

The nearly $53 billion budget cuts Customs and Border Protection (CBP) funding by almost $930 million and reduces Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding by $1.5 million compared to the current fiscal year’s spending levels.

The budget rescinds the previously appropriated $2.06 billion for border wall construction and provides no funding for additional U.S. Border Patrol agents. It also allows up to $100 million that was previously designated to build a border wall to instead go to the Department of Interior.

Meanwhile, the budget shifts funds of $132 million for “new technology” along the border, a longtime talking point of Democrats and establishment Republicans who argue that a virtual wall is more feasible than physical barriers that stop or deter border crossers.

For ICE, the budget provides $332 million less towards the agency’s Civil Immigration Enforcement Operations while spending $475 million to expand alternatives to detention for illegal aliens that more easily allows detainees to be released into the U.S. interior.

Most consequential, the budget prevents ICE agents from deporting an illegal alien who applies to sponsor an Unaccompanied Alien Child (UAC) and illegal aliens whose only criminal history is possession of marijuana.

Similarly, the budget expands on Biden’s “sanctuary country” orders by:

• Requiring DHS to provide detained border crossers access to attorneys
• Banning funding for a portion of ICE’s 287(g) program that allows officers to arrest suspected illegal aliens
• Prohibiting deportations for illegal aliens with “pending claims for humanitarian relief”
• Banning the Homeland Security Investigations unit from engaging in civil immigration enforcement matters
• Requiring ICE detainees to be paid the local prevailing minimum wage for work conducted while in detention

“This bill would rescind all prior year’s border wall funds and make it impossible for border patrol and immigration officers to do their job,” Fleischmann said. “Just like last year, the bill Democrats are pushing uses the brave men and women who protect our county every day as political pawns in a never-ending game to undermine border security and create open borders for undocumented migrants to flow into our nation.”

The budget will go before a committee hearing on Wednesday.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.