U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) included $134.5 million in “contingency” funding in its budget request for Fiscal Year 2016 to deal with a “future influx” of up to 104,000 unaccompanied alien children, or “UCs,” who may cross the border into the United States illegally next year.
CBP Commissioner Richard Gil Kerlikowske defended the request during a hearing before the House Appropriations’ Homeland Security Subcommittee on Thursday as providing “additional resources” for CBP in the event of another flood of illegal aliens, which he warned could be coming.
“The budget request provides baseline funding for the care and custody of 58,000 UCs and takes steps to better prepare the Department for a future influx of UCs through a contingency fund which will provide up to $134.5 million to provide the necessary support activities required to apprehend and maintain the health and safety for up to 104,000 UCs once specific threshold levels are met,” CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said in his written statement to the subcommittee.
“Without this increase in funding, CBP will not have the flexibility to adequately respond to a significant surge of UCs in FY 2016,” Kerlikowske added in the statement.
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