President Donald Trump is proposing to trim the Justice Department’s overall budget in the coming year, but he wants to boost funding for a crackdown on illegal immigration.
The Trump administration is proposing a $27.7 billion for the Justice Department in fiscal 2018, down $1.1 billion, or about 4 percent, from the continuing resolution the previous year.
But the administration proposed nearly $145 million in additional funding for immigration enforcement, adding 75 immigration judges along with about 375 support personnel, 70 new assistant U.S. attorneys focused on immigration and border crime, 40 deputy marshals, and new funds for prison space to detain more illegal immigrants.
“With this budget we are also implementing the president’s promise to secure our borders and restore a lawful immigration system,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told reporters at a Justice Department briefing Tuesday. “While dramatic progress has been made at the border in recent months, much remains to be done, and it’s critical that we focus on increased enforcement of our criminal immigration laws and that we enforce all immigration laws efficiently.”
“We’ve asked all federal prosecutors to increase their focus on this area by making several immigration offenses a higher priority,” Rosenstein said.
