According to the White House, President Donald Trump’s budget bill allocates $2.6 billion for the “planning, design and construction” of the controversial wall along the Mexican border.
It also allocates $314 million for the recruitment and training of 500 border agents and 1,000 immigration agents.
Regarding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the draft budget also allocates additional resources of $ 1.5 billion over the 2017 budget to expand the capacity for “detention, transportation and removal of illegal immigrants.”
The 62-page budget summary also includes a section dedicated to the Department of Justice, which will receive an increase of $80 million for the recruitment of 75 new immigration court judges (raising their number to 449).
The project determines the establishment of 60 new immigration prosecutors in the border area.
In relation to the wall, the Department of Justice will have a team of 20 lawyers to obtain land for the construction, and another team of 20 lawyers with their respective assistants to assist in immigration proceedings.
Since last year’s election campaign, Trump has reiterated that Mexico will pay for the costs of the controversial wall, although Mexican officials have already ruled out any possibility of that happening.
The first studies on the cost of the wall that Trump wants to build indicates that the bill will be at least $ 15 billion, but it could reach more than $ 20 billion.