The Senate’s homeland defense budget committee voted to fund President Donald Trump’s $1.6 billion request to build or upgrade 74 miles of border wall but rejected his request for extra funding to repatriate or block more illegal migrants.
The House has already approved the $1.6 billion in border-wall funding, so the Democrats’ next best chance to stop the funding is a vote on the Senate floor.
The wall funding is just 3 percent of the over $51.6 billion bill, which funds all aspects of homeland spending in 2018.
The committee refused to add funding for 850 extra repatriation officers or funding to increase detention space for the rising wave of migrants who claim asylum at the border. Trump had asked for funding to detain 51,379 migrants pending their court hearings, but the GOP and the Democratic Senators kept the funding at the 2017 level of 31,000 spaces. The reduced funding will require officials to release migrants whenever all of the 31,000 detention spaces are occupied.
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