Axios/John Wagner 2/10/2019 President Donald Trump plans to slash funding for the U.S. Department of Customs and Immigration Services (CBP) and border patrol by more than $2 billion, the White House announced Wednesday.
The announcement follows a report from the Department of Homeland Security that found that the agency is struggling to secure the nation’s border.
The cuts come as Trump has pledged to prioritize immigration enforcement at the expense of border security, a position that he said he would take to win the election in November.
“Our border security is our No. 1 priority, and these cuts will put our border security at the top of our priorities,” the president said in a statement Wednesday.
Trump’s decision to cut CBP funding is a setback to the president’s efforts to bolster border security during his first year in office, which has focused more on border security and enforcement than on building the border wall.
On Tuesday, the president announced that the Border Patrol would be given a new funding boost.
The agency currently receives about $8 billion annually in funding.
The Trump administration is also expected to slash the budget for Customs and Enforcement (CBI), which includes the Border Protection agency.
CBP has been under the control of DHS since September 2021, but has faced criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike for the lack of progress on border-crossing cases.
The budget for the agency was originally projected to grow by $1.9 billion, according to Axios.
The cut would affect about 2,000 positions, with the cuts occurring on a per-capita basis.
The CBP budget is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Treasury Department and other agencies.
