Photo: Alamy
Trump officials are seeking $175 billion to help secure the border following a meeting between border czar Tom Homan and Senate Republicans.
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham shared the update with reporters on Tuesday.
“I cannot and I will not go back to South Carolina and justify not supporting the president’s immigration plan. We’re not building a wall, folks. We’re hitting a wall. They need the money, and they need it now,” Graham said in urging the House to join in support of the bill.
Homan also addressed reporters following his meeting with Graham and other GOP senators, arguing for “more money, more success.”
“Hopefully, we won’t run out of money. The more money we got, the more bad guys we take off the street, the safer America is,” he said.
The news comes as House Republican leaders prepare a budget to present to fund President Donald Trump’s vision, including securing the border and other initiatives. Some lawmakers advocate for one larger bill while others argue for breaking the funding up into multiple pieces of legislation.
Early efforts to secure the border have already shown strong success. Homan said illegal border crossings are down 93 percent in an update earlier this month with Fox News.
“We’ve got the numbers this morning. The crossings on the border are down 93%. 93%! That’s a bigger decrease than under the first Trump administration,” Homan told Maria Bartiromo.
“So, look, I said it, President Trump’s the game-changer. No one has had the success he’s had in securing the border. He clearly understands we can’t have strong national security if we don’t have border security. We need to know who’s coming in, what’s coming in, where, and why,” he continued.
Homan also reported on the number of migrant criminals arrested since Trump’s return to the White House.
“We’ve achieved success on the border already. We’ve got more work to do. And as far as the deportation operation, we’re just shy of — I think we got 5,000 arrested the first week, and a majority of them being criminals,” Homan said.
“The non-criminals the media’s talking about, who are these non-criminals? The non-criminals are arrested in sanctuary cities because you force us into the community rather than arresting the bad guy in jail, and when we find that criminal, he’s most likely with others, and they’re going to go too. If you want to be a sanctuary city, you’re going to get more agents in the community and more upon-criminals arrested,” he added.
