US uses emergency fund to deal with border crisis

The current United States administration, led by Democrat Joe Biden, plans to use the emergency fund through fiscal year 2025. According to NBC News, the appropriation is $4.7 billion and its target will be border security.

The initiative seeks to intensify the operations of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the event of a significant increase in immigration.

The department can only receive funding if the number of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border exceeds an unspecified cap in the budget.

If the money is not used to address the increase in migration, it will be transferred to the funds of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Opposition to the Republican Party

It is clear that Joe Biden's proposal will face strong opposition from Republican representatives in Congress.

Earlier, the legislative opposition refused to approve $13.6 billion (USD) in emergency funding requested to respond to a record surge of migrants at the border.

The program focuses on border security. It also seeks significant funding for various problem areas in the aforementioned area.

That includes $405 million to hire 1,300 additional Border Patrol agents, as well as funding to maintain ICE's current 34,000 detention beds.

Likewise, $1 billion is earmarked for assistance to Central America and nearly $1 billion to resolve the backlog of more than 2.4 million cases pending in US immigration courts.

Finally, the budget calls for the hiring of 1,000 additional CBP agents and $849 million for fentanyl detection technology at the border to combat smuggling.