The 2019 budget request, unveiled by President Donald Trump on Monday, includes funds for more immigration agents and judges, as well as a border wall between the US and Mexico. The 2019 budget will, though, see most other agencies receive funding cuts, some by up to 26 percent. But, there will be an increase of 7.8 percent for the Department of Homeland Security, which will receive a total of $47.5 billion.
Trump said that the increase demonstrates the ongoing serious commitment of his administration to secure the US border and ensure that the immigration system is working in the best interests of Americans, with increased enforcement. But, critics argue that the new budget will only make life more difficult for undocumented immigrants who face deportation from the US despite having no criminal record.
The advocacy group, FWD.us spokesman, Peter Boogaard, formerly an official with the Obama administration, said that the focus of the budget should pressure Congress, even more, this week to pass an immigration bill that will protect Dreamers, the undocumented immigrants who came to the US when still underage.
Around $1.6 billion in the President’s new budget would add a further 65 miles worth of walls along the southern border of the US with Mexico, principally in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, which is part of the $18 billion request across ten years to construct extra fences and walls on the border. Funding for Customs and Border Protection would also increase by 22 percent.