The Department of Homeland Security will roll out its southern border strategy in October, and will follow that up with a security plan for the northern border, acting secretary Elaine Duke told a Senate committee on Wednesday.
“We will have the northern border strategy by the end of the calendar year. We’ll have the southern border strategy within the next month,” Duke told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee during a hearing about threats to the homeland.
“I am looking at the plan next week and we’ll have it to Congress shortly after,” Duke added. “The southern border strategy does not just include just the wall, it includes the infrastructure, technology, and other securing mechanisms.”
Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., responded that it is “critically important” for Congress to have those plans as it weighs the Trump administration’s $2 billion increase in funding for DHS next year.
The update to border strategy is not unprecedented because former administrations have made changes to it in the past.
Weeks into his administration, Trump signed an executive order that directed DHS to come up with a comprehensive study on how to secure the southern border within six months.
In August, DHS announced it would also create a new strategy for handling emerging issues on the northern border.
