Border chief asks for $23 million to handle predicted surge of 75,000 illegals

Brett T. | 8:12 PM on March 02, 2016

If you ask him, GOP candidate Donald Trump will be happy to remind you that he was the one who kicked off his presidential campaign talking about illegals and border security. Trump took a lot of heat for his comments about Mexicans and rape, but he did manage to keep the issue at the forefront of all the candidates’ campaigns and do significant damage to former “Gang of Eight” member Marco Rubio and Jeb “Act of Love” Bush.

Democrat front-runner Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has repeatedly spoken about how she wants to build ladders to opportunity and empowerment, not walls. Those actually charged with enforcing America’s southern border, however, wouldn’t mind a wall.

Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner reports in today’s issue that R. Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of United States Customs and Border Protection, yesterday asked Congress to allocate $23 million to the agency to deal with an expected surge (or “seasonal increase”) of 75,000 illegal youths this year.

AGAIN: Border chief expects another 75,000 surge of illegal youths https://t.co/V5mp06H5TZ via @DCExaminer

— Paul Bedard (@SecretsBedard) March 2, 2016

“Border officials have blamed the lack of a tough anti-immigration policy for the surge,” writes Bedard, “and said that the word in Latin America is that once illegal immigrants get in, they are essentially allowed to go free.”

Bedard adds that Kerlikowske called for more agents rather than more fencing, as well as other higher-tech solutions such as (securely tethered) tactical aerostats, ground sensors, and more.

The Examiner’s Joel Gerkhe futher reports that Ronald Vitiello, acting chief of the U.S. Border Patrol, told a House Homeland Security subcommittee panel Tuesday that improving the “physical barrier” at the border would help supplement the current fencing, which has had a “great effect” on controlling immigration and drug trafficking. No such “wall” has been formally requested, though.

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