Biden admin offering vaccines to illegal immigrants despite seeking billions in COVID-19 funding

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Influx of migrants expected if health rule expires

Fox News correspondent William La Jeunesse has the latest on border security on 'Special Report.'

The Biden administration continues to offer COVID-19 vaccines to illegal immigrants crossing over the southern border despite having urgently requested $22.5 billion for more vaccines and treatment.

The request was first lowered to $15.6 billion and then ultimately cut from a $1.5 trillion government spending bill, which provides $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

"We have made tremendous progress in our fight against COVID-19, but our work isn’t done," Biden tweeted last week. "We need Congress to immediately provide $22.5 billion in emergency funding to sustain our nation’s COVID-19 response."

A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Monday that the effort to vaccinate migrants in their care and custody has been ongoing for many months and "is a public health best practice."

DHS REQUESTING ADDITIONAL PENTAGON SUPPORT AT BORDER AMID FEARS OF MASSIVE MIGRANT SURGE

"DHS has been providing the COVID-19 vaccines to noncitizens in ICE custody since summer 2021," DHS said. "In order to further safeguard public health and ensure the safety of border communities, the workforce, and migrants, DHS is now expanding these efforts and, beginning today, requiring that noncitizens taken into CBP custody for further immigration processing at the Southwest land border be given age-appropriate COVID-19 vaccines."

A pair of migrant families from Brazil pass through a gap in the border wall to reach the United States after crossing from Mexico to Yuma, Ariz., to seek asylum on June 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Eugene Garcia, File)

BIDEN SAYS ‘THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE A DAY’ CROSSING US BORDER AS OFFICIALS BRACE FOR NEW MIGRANT SURGE

Biden recently said border officials are facing thousands of migrants a day, which is a rare recognition of the massive numbers that Border Patrol has been dealing with over the last year.

President Joe Biden introduces his budget request for fiscal year 2023 in the State Dining Room of the White House on March 28, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

There were 164,973 encounters in February 2022, compared to 101,099 encounters in February 2021, a month that preceded a massive surge in numbers in the spring and summer months. The Washington Post reported last week that preliminary Customs and Border Protection data indicate that authorities are on track to have encountered more than 200,000 in March, compared to 173,277 in March 2021.

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The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.