Trump had requested $1.6 billion in funding for the border wall, with additional money for border technology, and appeared to have secured that in the spending bill. But a closer look indicates that it differs from what Trump requested.
The $1.6 billion funding offers:
Some $251 million for 14 miles of “secondary fencing” along the southwest border in the San Diego Sector.
It also funds $445 million for 25 miles of “primary pedestrian levee fencing” along the southwest border in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, as well as an additional $196 million for fencing along the same border. White House budget director Mick Mulvaney indicated this would be an additional eight miles, less than the 32 miles the White House requested.
It also gives $445 million for the “replacement of existing primary pedestrian fencing along the southwest border.”
An additional $38 million is for border barrier “planning and design” as well as $196 million for acquisition and deployment of “border security technology."
Yet even that money comes with strings attached. The omnibus says that the only designs that can be used are those already approved in 2017, “such as currently deployed steel bollard designs.”
Mulvaney said that in addition to the 63 miles of replacement barriers included, which the White House did not request, they also got more money than requested for technology and facilities. He said the White House was happy with the immigration provisions even as he conceded that they were not able to get everything they wanted.
"We asked for 74 miles worth of wall, we got 100," Mulvaney said. "Not exactly what we wanted, where we wanted. Congress chose to ignore some of the suggestions that [Customs and Border Protection] made on where the best kind of wall should go and that's unfortunate."
The omnibus also does not include the cutting of funding to sanctuary cities, nor does it increase the number of detention beds or ICE deportation agents -- two items that Trump had wanted in.