Biden sets immigration priorities in funding plan: resettling refugees and housing migrant children

In his first funding request to Congress, President Biden outlined a starkly different set of immigration policy priorities than his predecessor, asking for billions to resettle refugees, house migrant children, speed up U.S. citizenship petitions and process asylum-seekers along the southern border.

The White House on Friday unveiled the president's $1.5 trillion discretionary funding request for fiscal year 2022, which serves a preview for a more comprehensive spending plan expected in the late spring. The preliminary spending request to Congress includes several multi-billion dollar immigration-related allocations for the Departments of Homeland Security, State and Health and Human Services. The proposal allocates $52 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, roughly the same amount provided in 2021. About $1.2 billion would be reserved for what the administration calls "effective and modern" border security, including plans to revamp ports of entry, expand technology, curtail human and drug smuggling and improve the processing of migrants and asylum-seekers.