In his boldest challenge yet to incoming President-elect Trump, outgoing President Obama is demanding that Congress more than double its spending on illegal immigrants to nearly $4 billion, a bigger increase than he sought for the care of war veterans, Secrets has learned.

In budget documents sent to Congress, the administration is seeking a jump from $1.7 billion to $3.9 billion for Health and Human Services Department programs aimed at the care and welfare of illegal immigrants and refugees.

The U.S. Border Patrol this week revealed that 408,870 illegals were caught in the last fiscal year. When divided into the president's budget request, that't $9,530 each.

The request for the department's Office of Refugee Resettlement even includes a cushion "in the event caseloads are higher than anticipated."

Specifically, $1 billion would provide "cash and medical expenses and social services" for illegals and refugees.

Another $2.82 billion would fund the care of youths flooding across the border in historic numbers. "HHS is experiencing the highest number of unaccompanied children in care and the largest footprint of funded capacity in the program's history, and flows of unaccompanied children have continued to grow over the last months," said the administration's documents.

That increase, which has shocked many immigration critics on Capitol Hill, is far more than the $1.4 billion increase the administration sought for veterans health care in the Fiscal 2017 budget.

"What the heck is going on here?" asked Texas Rep. Brian Babin, who has sought to rein in the president's expanding refugee programs. "This is a total violation of what Trump is trying to do," he said.

Trump has pledged to reduce the nation's refugee and immigration numbers and lawmakers indicated that they will press him and GOP leaders to target Obama's huge increase in his continuing budget resolution request.

"He's trying to slip this money in here at the end of a lame duck session," said Babin. "It's a joke."

Obama has greatly expanded programs to aid illegal immigrants. The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol told the Senate this week that the administration's welcome mat is drawing thousands more to the U.S.

"Right now they know that if they make it to the border, they will be released into the interior of the United States," said Mark Morgan, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol. "It sends a strong message to those folks in the country that if you get to the us border, we're going to let you in. It's a huge pull factor," he added.

The request comes as the departments that spend heavily to house, feed and care for illegals raid programs like Medicare and cancer research to pay for a new surge of immigrants.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com