This is the current barrier at one section of the border in the El Paso Border Patrol Sector in Texas. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo)

(CNSNews.com) - The fiscal 2019 budget proposal that White House Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney will release today calls for Congress to appropriate $18 billion in fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2019 for building President Donald Trump's proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“With the recent two-year caps deal, the Administration is seeking a total investment of $18 billion across fiscal years 2018 and 2019 to build the southern border wall,” says a press release on the budget proposal put out by OMB.

Since there will be a little more than six months left in fiscal 2017 when the current short-term continuing resolution expires on March 23, the $18 billion Trump is asking for the border wall would effectively be appropriated over a 18-month period running through the end of September 2019, when fiscal 2019 ends.

The OMB press release lists some of the priorities in the president’s new budget proposal. One of these is: “Secures our porous southern border and strengthens enforcement of immigration law.”

“The budget proposes more than $23 billion for border security and immigration enforcement programs, making the investments necessary to construct physical infrastructure, improve technology, and increase personnel, resources, and authorities on the ground,” says the release.

“The budget request includes $782 million to hire and support 2,750 additional law enforcement officers and agents at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and provides $2.7 billion to pay for an average daily detention capacity of 52,000 illegal aliens at ICE, the agency’s highest-ever detention level,” says the release.

“With the recent two-year caps deal, the Administration is seeking a total investment of $18 billion across fiscal years 2018 and 2019 to build the southern border wall,” it says.