President Trump moved towards his promised crackdown on immigration upon taking office, signing executive orders that called for the hiring of more enforcement agents and the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but his proposed budget, released Thursday, signals an incremental approach.
The Department of Homeland Security’s budget would grow by $2.8 billion, or roughly 7 percent, as laid out in the White House blueprint. Of that, $314 million is allotted to hire and train 500 new Border Patrol Agents and 1,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents.
“These new personnel would improve the integrity of the immigration system by adding capacity to interdict those aliens attempting to cross the border illegally, as well as to identify and remove those already in the United States who entered illegally,” the blueprint reads.
The figures provide a sense of how the president intends to execute his previous call for an uptick in Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents and Border Patrol Agents. Last month, the DHS released memos requesting the hiring of 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents and 5,000 more Customs and Border Protection Agents. Hiring, however, is a complicated and long process—that’s particularly true for immigration-enforcement agents.