AUSTIN— Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released the following statement on the administration’s proposed FY2021 Department of Homeland Security budget:
“The right mix of personnel, technology and infrastructure is essential to securing the border, and the administration’s new budget proposal strengthens all three of those critical elements,” said John Hostettler, Vice President of Federal Affairs at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and former Chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims.
In addition to funding the completion of necessary new construction of barriers in major trafficking corridors and population centers along the southwest border, TPPF’s Vice President of Federal Affairs pointed to the administration’s more than two billion-dollar proposed boosts to both Customs and Border Protection as well as ICE for securing the border and effective immigration law enforcement.
“Both agencies are in need of those resources to do their jobs, so we never again see our officers, federal facilities, and border overwhelmed like they were last year,” said Hostettler.
Specifically, Hostettler pointed to provisions for 30 new surveillance towers, over 3,000 new Border Patrol and ICE agents and the expansion of total detention holding capacity to 60,000 as part of what he described as “a major strengthening of border security and immigration law enforcement” in the administration’s FY2021 proposed budget for DHS.