FIRST ON FOX: President Donald Trump's newly sworn-in top Cabinet members are asking Congress to provide more resources to continue the administration's full court press to secure the border and facilitate large-scale deportations.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi penned a letter to top appropriators in the House and Senate, pleading with them to designate more funds to the cause of securing the U.S. southern border.
"The American people strongly support sealing our borders and returning to a lawful immigration system," Noem, Hegseth and Bondi told the lawmakers in the letter obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.
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"Even if the price of some of these measures may seem high, they are nothing when compared to the costs our country is facing in the long term of continuing the status quo," they explained.
According to the Trump Cabinet officials, their departments need a variety of resources to continue securing the border at the current level.
These include additional law enforcement officers; military personnel, including Active Duty and State and National Guard; aircraft and additional means of transportation to facilitate deportations; both materials and workers to finish construction of "a permanent barrier" at the border; additional immigration judges to quickly decide cases and clear the backlog; and more facilities to detain illegal immigrant waiting for deportation.
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The correspondence to congressional leaders comes as a March 14 spending bill deadline approaches, and the chambers are expected to lay out a new spending deal to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Passing a spending bill next month with satisfactory border funding could prove difficult, however, because 60 votes will be needed in the Senate. That means the Republican conference cannot pass it single-handedly and will need the support of several Democrats to get it done.
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The letter from Noem, Hegseth and Bondi also coincides with congressional Republicans' efforts to put together a budget deal with provisions for border security and pass it in an expeditious manner. However, the House and Senate GOP have begun to butt heads on how to go about the key budget reconciliation process and whether to pursue one big bill with all of Trump's priorities or to use a two-bill approach, with another being passed later in the year to address Trump's tax agenda.
By lowering the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to 51 out of 100, reconciliation allows the party in power to skirt its opposition to advance its agenda - provided the items included relate to budgetary and other fiscal matters. The House of Representatives already has a simple majority threshold.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Senate Committee on the Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said, "Without new funding, President Trump's bold border security plan will hit a wall. The administration needs the funding now and without delay."
He pointed to the $175 billion being allocated for border security measures in his recently-unveiled first reconciliation bill that will go through his committee this week.
"Importantly, these necessary investments will be paid for by making spending cuts to other areas of the federal government," Graham explained.
"$175 billion is a fraction of the cost of an out of control illegal immigration system that's poisoning America and allowing violence to reign. It's the best money we could ever spend - and it will be paid for," the senator concluded.
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Fox News Digital reached Senate Committee on Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ranking Member Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Senate Committee on the Budget Ranking Member Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.; House Committee on Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., and Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., but did not immediately receive responses.
