Sponsors (2)
This bill funnels new and reallocated fees and appropriations toward rapid construction of border barriers and increased enforcement capacity—improving resources and operational focus at the border—while imposing higher costs on travelers and remittance senders, increasing taxpayer obligations, raising environmental and tribal-rights risks, and creating privacy, criminalization, and diplomatic trade‑offs.
Border and federal enforcement agencies receive a new, dedicated multi-source funding stream (Secure the Southern Border Fund plus fee allocations) that increases resources for barrier construction, border infrastructure, and longer-term project planning.
Residents of U.S. border communities and local authorities are likely to see increased construction of physical barriers, roads, and related technology intended to reduce unauthorized crossings in their areas.
Specific fee changes create predictable revenue for operational needs: increased I-94 fees will fund Border Patrol salaries, sustain land border inspection accounts, and provide a dedicated $9-per-fee stream to the Secure the Southern Border Fund.
Millions of remittance senders—often low-income immigrant households—will pay an additional 5% on outbound transfers, reducing funds available to families abroad and increasing costs for immigrant communities.
The act sharply expands criminal and civil penalties and reporting obligations around remittances, creating privacy and surveillance risks, heavy compliance burdens for providers, and the potential for overcriminalizing ordinary transfers.
Taxpayers face substantially higher costs from new appropriations for barrier construction, rapid build/maintenance obligations, and mandated premium pay for extended Border Patrol hours.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025
Creates a new Treasury account to fund planning, design, construction, and maintenance of a physical barrier along the U.S.–Mexico border and to buy limited vehicles/equipment for Border Patrol. It raises certain travel and remittance fees, requires annual reports on border apprehensions, reduces foreign aid to countries based on apprehensions and transfers those reductions into the new fund, sets a December 31, 2025 completion/operational-control deadline, and changes pay/overtime rules for Border Patrol agents while giving the Secretary of Homeland Security broad construction and legal-waiver authority. The bill redirects fee revenue and cuts to foreign assistance to finance the border barrier, adds penalties and country-level sanctions for aiding fee evasion, and includes timelines for account creation, fee remittance mechanisms, and reporting. It also preserves the rest of the law if part is invalidated by courts.