Here’s What’s Really in the White House’s Border Supplemental

Included in the White House’s $106 billion emergency supplemental request is $13.6 billion to deal with the southern border. Congress should reject this request because the Biden Administration does not intend to use it for border security. Instead, this request continues to double down on the ineffective strategy of processing illegal aliens out of Department of Homeland Security custody and releasing them into American communities. While the Biden Administration claims it lacks resources for the southern border, the reality is they have a policy problem because they refuse to introduce deterrence policies or impose consequences on those who break our immigration laws.

Here is how the Biden Administration will spend your taxpayer dollars to continue its humanitarian and national security crisis at the southern border if Congress gives them the money:

$4.4 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) management operations, including for temporary (“soft-sided”) facilities, migrant transportation, and medical care requirements. [Attachment 5]

• This is for processing illegal aliens into the U.S., not deterring illegal immigration or enforcing the existing law.
• Millions of taxpayer dollars to Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) for Shelter and Services Program grants that go to NGOs that provide housing and other resources for illegal aliens.
• Build temporary (“soft-sided”) facilities at the border that were heavily criticized during the Trump Administration.
• Millions to CBP to reimburse the Department of Defense for “border security support” along the border.

$2.5 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hire additional criminal investigators, attorneys, and support staff. An undeclared amount for “immigration enforcement, detention, transportation, and removal” [Attachment 5]

• Criminal investigators do important national security and public safety work but they are not involved in immigration removal proceedings.
• The hiring of additional attorneys will take months-to-years which will have little impact on the current case backlog.
• The proposal does not alter ICE’s current “enforcement priorities” that exempt nearly all illegal aliens from being deported.

$1.42 billion to the Department of Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) to hire 375 additional Immigration Judges and support staff through FY24 [Attachment 5]

• The hiring process within the Department of Justice takes six months at a minimum and is far too long to make a dent in the caseload, which is the highest in history.
• The Biden Administration does not have a history of hiring applicants who would enforce the laws on the books and they fired immigration judges that were hired shortly before the change in administrations.

$50 million to the Department of State’s (DOS) “Diplomatic Programs” to promote and process unlawful categorical parole programs [Attachment 5]

• Continues to fund the Biden Administration’s abuse of immigration law and policies designed to hide the optics of the border crisis.

$850 million to DOS “Migration and Refugee Assistance” to fund illegal aliens from the Western Hemisphere exploiting categorical parole [Attachment 5]

$400 million to DOS “International Assistance Programs” to provide American taxpayer dollars to the governments of Central American countries whose nationals make up a large percentage of the illegal aliens making fraudulent asylum claims at the southern border. [Attachment 5]

• There is no evidence that suggests these governments will finally take steps to keep their nationals in their own countries or enforce their own immigration laws against nationals of other countries who transit through them on their way to the U.S.

$2.5 billion to the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice for fentanyl-related interdiction activities and programs [Attachment 5]

• The White House fails to acknowledge that a significant amount of fentanyl is smuggled across the southern border instead of through the ports of entry.
• The Biden Administration refuses to change its open borders policies that fuel the fentanyl poisoning crisis. (Combating Fentanyl, AFPI)

$849 million to CBP for “non-intrusive inspection” technology to interdict fentanyl and human trafficking [Attachment 5]

• The Biden Administration continues to wrongly insist that fentanyl only comes across the border at ports of entry. As long as the current open borders policies continue, fentanyl, human traffickers, and national security threats will still pour across our unsecure border.

$13.8 million to Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) to “support counter-fentanyl research and development” [Attachment 5]

$23.2 million to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to combat fentanyl and drug networks in the U.S. [Attachment 5]

• The Biden Administration refuses to change its open borders policies that fuel the fentanyl poisoning crisis.

$50 million to the Department of Labor (DOL)’s Wage & Hour division for efforts to protect children from exploitation, particularly vulnerable children entering the United States through the southern border and $50 million to DOL Solicitor’s office to prosecute companies exploiting child labor. [Attachment 5]

• The Biden Administration eliminated vetting standards at HHS facilities and for sponsors of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) that increase the likelihood of child labor exploitation.
• This is an insufficient amount of money to contend with the record number of UAC trafficked across the border.
• The Biden Administration also has hampered ICE’s ability to conduct worksite enforcement.
• See AFPI’s 2021-2023: Child Exploitation at the Southern Border Issue Brief for more.

$481 million to the unlawful “Uniting for Ukraine” (U4U) parole program, providing cash, medical assistance, job training, English language classes, and more [p. 35]

• The U4U program was set up by the Biden Administration promising to raise “private” resources for Ukrainians and provide a sponsor responsible for maintaining their financial needs. This failed program puts American taxpayers on the hook.
• Read more about the illegality of the Biden Administration’s parole proposal in AFPI’s The Biden Administration’s New Plan Fails to Solve the Border Crisis issue brief.

Extends the ability of U4U parolees to receive unlawful welfare benefits through end of FY24 [p. 36]

• Beyond the illegality of U4U, this request continues to enlarge the pool of inadmissible aliens who are treated like refugees to immediately become eligible for taxpayer-funded welfare, creating a temporary immigration status category for parolees.
• The total fiscal cost of this program to American taxpayers is unknown.
• Read AFPI’s DHS’s Unlawful Use of Parole is a Profit Driver for Cartels and Human Traffickers issue brief

$3.5 billion for displaced Ukrainians [p. 40]

• This provision provides taxpayer funded benefits to Ukrainians, resources unavailable to other populations around the world.
• This request also is another example of the lie the administration claimed that U4U would have sponsors provide for the parolees.