Letter to Hon. Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security - Rep. Mike Levin Urges DHS Secretary Mayorkas to Request Additional Funding to Manage Southwest Border

Letter

Dear Secretary Mayorkas,
May 16, 2022
I write to urge the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to submit a supplemental budget request to Congress outlining the resources it needs to address and manage an expected increase in migrants along our nation's southwest border.
I recently visited the southwest border, where I was grateful to hear from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials who detailed ongoing staffing issues and discussed the need to surge more resources to the border to address security and humanitarian challenges.
As the Department prepares for a potential lifting of the Title 42 public health order, I believe the Administration must take additional steps to prepare for the effects of the order's expiration. It is clear that the Department will need additional resources to combat drug and human trafficking and address an expected influx of migrants at the border over the summer. While the Department recently released a memo outlining certain elements of a whole-of- government plan to manage increased migration and trafficking attempts, DHS must take additional steps to fully prepare for historic levels of activity and encounters along our southwest border.
In order to provide necessary resources to our DHS professionals so that they can fulfill their mission, I request that the Department provide Congress with a supplemental emergency funding request. I stand ready to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this emergency funding to
Thank you for your consideration.

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