Republican Iowa Rep. Steve King told The Daily Caller Wednesday that he hopes to see more funding for a southern border wall than what the White House requested in its proposed 2018 budget.
Just $1.6 billion in the Trump administration’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2018 goes towards border wall construction. This would fund 60 miles of new border walling, and would replace 14 miles of existing fencing. The border with Mexico is roughly 1,900 miles and the Department of Homeland Security has estimated that a complete border wall will cost $21.6 billion.
King told TheDC over text message that Trump “should have had 5-6 billion in the wall. It signals that the fight to build it will be longer than I had hoped.”
Many Congressional Republicans have said that the White House’s budget is dead on arrival, and King said, “I am looking for a way to plus up the wall in the House. I don’t see how our number would end up less.”
The immigration hawk supported President Trump in his presidential run, but has at times criticized his tenure in office. After Trump said that Obama’s amnesty for illegal immigrants who arrived as minors is here to stay, King told TheDC that Trump may need to be sued by “defenders of the Constitution.”
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