Border Wall, Agents, Tech Top GOP Wish List for Budget Bill

The Department of Homeland Security is in for a bonanza from Congress if Republicans succeed in passing a sweeping package with border security and immigration enforcement money.

Agency officials have decried inadequate funding for infrastructure, technology, and personnel for years, with accounts caught in perennial appropriations battles and broader political debates even as border crossings surged during swaths of President Joe Biden’s term.

Congressional Republicans are pursuing a budget reconciliation package to address many longstanding border funding asks, while likely bypassing thornier policy changes they say are needed to overhaul the immigration system. Early estimates of border funding needed have come in at $85 billion or higher.

Many Democrats support increased funding for border-related expenses, but Republicans largely rebuffed Biden’s requests for emergency border cash, arguing his administration needed to focus on policy changes. Now many are eager to provide the funding as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to tighten border restrictions and conduct mass deportations.

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Republicans’ planned reconciliation pathway to bolster border security allows them to move legislation through the Senate with a simple majority instead of the 60-vote threshold most bills face.

The catch is measures must be primarily budget-related—not just policy focused—to pass muster with the parliamentarian who interprets the chamber’s rules. Newly installed Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has already thrown cold water on calls to override the rulekeeper to include loftier policy changes.

While Republicans’ plans are evolving, several key border and immigration funding items have emerged on the GOP’s to-do list.

Border Boost

Trump needs robust staffing at the Border Patrol to make good on his central campaign pledge to lock down the southern and northern frontiers.

The law enforcement agency charged with managing the vast stretches of land between ports of entry received funding last year to support a workforce of 22,000 agents, but lawmakers may move to increase the force further and add money for recruitment, training, and retention bonuses.

“It’s not just about recruiting new people — hell, they’ve got empty slots right now they can’t fill,” House Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said.

Finishing the US-Mexico border wall is also a top funding objective, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last month.

Mass Deportation

Lawmakers must make it a priority to fund enforcement throughout the US to really crack down on illegal immigration and carry out sweeping deportations, said Lora Ries, head of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, which favors tighter restrictions.

That means more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, detention capacity—above the current level of 41,500 beds—and deportation flights. Exact figures are still in flux, but incoming border czar Tom Homan estimated the effort would cost $86 billion.

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“This is really following their lead in terms of what they need funding for,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said of the incoming Trump administration’s budget needs.

Body Armor, Technology

Republicans’ marquee border bill from last Congress provides a menu of other items the party is poised to include in reconciliation.

Border officials need funding for license plate readers, scanners, and better radio communications systems, Green said. Also on the list, he said: money for agent body armor and the clearing of overgrown plants called carrizo cane and salt cedar that help migrants evade detection along the border.

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Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), a HSGAC member who unsuccessfully pushed a bipartisan border bill last year, said reconciliation money would also go toward counter-drone equipment and non-intrusive inspection technology designed to catch fentanyl and other illegal goods at ports of entry.

Application Fees

Republicans also have ideas for how to raise some money through reconciliation.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said his team is pitching ideas to raise the fees immigrants pay for asylum applications and other processes.

Revenue-generators like that will be critical as some GOP budget hawks caution their colleagues against a border spending spree. HSGAC Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he would support the proposals only in conjunction with overall spending cuts.