President Donald Trump plans to roll out his 2020 budget proposal on Monday. He plans to ask Congress for an additional $8.6 billion in funding for the construction of a border wall along the United States' southern border. The ask is likely to cause another battle between Republicans and Democrats.
According to The Daily Caller, Trump's request includes $5 billion for the Department of Homeland Security and $3.6 billion for the Defense Department’s military construction budget to build more sections of the wall.
After a showdown with Trump, Congress only allocated $1.3 billion of the $5.7 billion Trump requested for the wall's construction. That money was used to finance 55 miles of wall along the Texas border. Not long after accepting Congress' offer, Trump declared a national emergency, which provided him a total of $8 billion in border wall funding.
From The Daily Caller:
The additional $8.6 billion — combined with funds from the emergency declaration — will allow the completion of 722 miles of barrier construction, a long-sought goal by the Trump administration. The White House claims that about 122 miles of border barriers have already been finished or are currently under construction. The entire length of the U.S.-Mexico border is 1,954 miles, with most walls located on the border’s western half.
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The move is sure to spark another debate amongst Democrats and Republicans. It's also a way for the issue of illegal immigration to stay in the news cycle ahead of the 2020 presidential election, an issue that motivated a large handful of Trump supporters.
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