President Joe Biden has requested a $4.7 billion emergency fund in his 2025 budget that is intended to address a potential migrant surge, as leaders in Washington continue to battle over funding to address record-high numbers of people attempting to cross the southern border.
The funds would reportedly be released if the levels of migrants seeking asylum hits a certain threshold. Otherwise the money would be filtered back to Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In cities across the country, many migrants are living in substandard housing and struggling to find work. Both CBP and ICE are dealing with budget shortfalls, while 80% of Americans say the government is doing a bad job handling immigration, according to recent Pew polling.
Republicans are not expected to accept Biden's proposal - having previously rejected his request for emergency funding at the border. Immigration authorities expect the number of migrants to increase as the weather gets warmer but funding for the border remains stalled in Congress.
"I certainly continue to be cognizant that the numbers of migrants coming across the southern border could increase and probably will increase in the weeks and months ahead," Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller told NBC News.
"I think that's one of the reasons that as we looked at the national security bill, it gave us additional authorities and resources to effectuate a consequence so that we could quickly screen off folks that didn't have a valid asylum claim and send them back."
