Since 9/11, the US government has increasingly framed immigration as a national security threat. George W. Bush created the Secure Communities program in 2008, which allowed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to access biometric data collected by local law enforcement; Barack Obama radically expanded that program, earning the nickname “deporter-in-chief.” Donald Trump campaigned on these issues, claiming that Mexico was sending rapists and drug dealers to the United States and promising to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Punitive immigration policies, so the argument went, were a crucial part of maintaining national security.

Trump’s first federal budget proposal unsurprisingly prioritized immigration enforcement, requesting a $54 billion increase in defense spending, with $2.8 billion of that going to border security. (The final budget cut that border security figure in half, however, and did not include a line item for the president’s beloved border wall.)