As the Biden administration braces for the record number of migrants crossing the southern border daily to increase, the Department of Homeland Security wants $2 billion from Congress to fight the surge, which Republicans may not be willing to approve.
Three senior DHS officials familiar with the plan say that DHS has sent a request for $2 billion to the White House's Office of Management and Budget, which will now have to decide whether to deny the request or ask Congress for more money. The president's budget requests are part of a fiscal year 2023 technical assistance package.
Republicans have been reticent to approve additional funding for the Democratic administration's border efforts, saying they want the border secured before more money is spent.
Since the policy began under President Donald Trump in 2020, the Covid 19 restrictions known as Title 42 have kept migrants from applying for asylum more than 2.4 million times. A federal judge has ruled that the policy must be lifted on December 21; several Republican states have sued to keep it in place.
The number of illegal crossings at the U.S. border is close to record highs, at 7,500 to 8,000 a day.
Even without Title 42 lifting, we are in the hole for millions, according to one of the DHS officials.
The number of attempted crossings is projected to increase by as much as 2,500 a day when the ban on Covid ends, and could reach 10,000, according to DHS officials.
More migrants will be able to stay in the U.S. and claim asylum when the ban ends instead of being sent back across the border. The extra money is needed to process, shelter and transport them.
Without more space in border processing centers, the facilities could get overcrowded, just as they did in 2019, when migrants said they were being held in spaces too small to lie down to sleep.
They could also end up being released into border cities or bused by Republican governors to cities inside the U.S.
The Biden administration appealed the federal court ruling that lifted Title 42 on Wednesday, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was correct in implementing it. The judge did not ask the judge to keep Title 42 in place.
A senior DHS official told NBC News that it could be the perfect time to lift Title 42 because southern border migration is typically at its lowest around the holidays. The 2024 presidential election is less likely to hurt Biden and Democrats if Title 42 is lifted closer to an election, as Republicans who campaigned for tighter border security wrapped their midterm campaigns, and the 2024 presidential election is nearly two years away, because of the fact that Title 42 is not likely to hurt Biden and Democrats at the polls.
The Biden administration plans to remove Title 42 by streamlining the asylum process and allowing Border Patrol officers to conduct interviews and quickly deport migrants. But it has warned that improving the process could take time and funding, and won't be achieved overnight. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.