Budgets reflect choices and values. Evidently, the Trump Administration is more committed to waging war on immigrants and refugees than in funding the war on terrorism.
The federal budget proposal that will be released in the coming days will reportedly slash funding for TSA, the Coast Guard, rail security and FEMA in order to pay for a war on immigrants — involving an unneeded border wall and vastly expanded deportation forces.
If approved, Trump’s mass deportation blueprint would be funded — and implementing it would come at a staggering cost to America. As an array of recent economic and fiscal projections show, mass deportation would be devastating to America’s economy and building the unnecessary border wall with Mexico would cost as much as $22 billion.
What’s more, internal DHS analyses directly undercut the “national security” rationale behind Trump’s anti-refugee, anti-Muslim policies.
Said Frank Sharry of AVEF:
So much for ‘making America safe again’. The Trump Administration’s budget priorities seem more designed to safeguard the country from hardworking immigrants and the demographic composition of the country than defend it against terrorist attacks. While many had hoped that DHS Secretary General John Kelly might provide a voice of reason in the Administration dominated by the white nationalist fever dreams of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, Gen. Kelly has thus far proven to be just as tied to the nationalist nonsense and fact-free fearmongering as his colleagues. That means it will be up to leaders on Capitol Hill and everyday Americans to speak out against the costly, cruel, and counterproductive vision of the Trump Administration.
See below for the details from the Post and Politico:
Washington Post, “To fund border wall, Trump administration weighs cuts to Coast Guard, airport security”:
The Trump administration, searching for money to build the president’s planned multibillion-dollar border wall and crack down on illegal immigration, is weighing significant cuts to the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies focused on national security threats, according to a draft plan.
The proposal, drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also would slash the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides disaster relief after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion budget in 2017 would be cut 14 percent to about $7.8 billion, while the TSA and FEMA budgets would be reduced about 11 percent each to $4.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively.
The cuts are proposed even as the planned budget for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees all of them, grows 6.4 percent to $43.8 billion, according to the plan, which was obtained by The Washington Post. Some $2.9 billion of that would go to building the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, with $1.9 billion funding “immigration detention beds” and other Immigration and Customs Enforcement expenses and $285 million set aside to hire 500 more Border Patrol agents and 1,000 more ICE agents and support staffers.
Politico: “Trump plan pays for immigration crackdown with cuts to coastal, air security”:
The Trump administration wants to gut the Coast Guard and make deep cuts in airport and rail security to help pay for its crackdown on illegal immigration, according to internal budget documents reviewed by POLITICO — a move that lawmakers and security experts say defies logic if the White House is serious about defending against terrorism and keeping out undocumented foreigners.
The Office of Management and Budget is seeking a 14 percent cut to the Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion budget, the draft documents show, even as it proposes major increases to other Department of Homeland Security agencies to hire more border agents and immigration officers and construct a physical barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The budget numbers mark the most detailed breakdown yet about how President Donald Trump envisions restructuring DHS to meet his pledge to halt illegal immigration and deport some of the millions already here.
Overall, DHS would get a 6 percent boost to its budget, to $43.8 billion. But to help pay for that, the administration would slice the budget of the Coast Guard and cut 11 percent in spending from the TSA — reductions that critics say would weaken safeguards against threats arriving by sea or air.
…’It is ignorant of what constitutes national security,’ said retired Adm. James Loy, a former Coast Guard commandant who served as deputy homeland security secretary and TSA administrator under President George W. Bush. ‘They simply don’t understand the equation.’
