The Trump administration on Wednesday asked Congress for $4.5 billion in immediate emergency funding to help address a surge in migration at the U.S. southern border, saying the situation has overwhelmed government resources.

Axar.az reports citing Reuters.

President Donald Trump earlier this year designated the immigration influx a national emergency, a declaration that empowered him to redirect more than $6 billion in government spending to projects to build a wall on the border, a central pledge of his 2016 presidential campaign.

But the new request for another $4.5 billion is on top of the wall funding, and is necessitated by record numbers of Central American families seeking asylum in the United States, straining capacity at migrant shelters in border cities such as El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

“Agencies are literally running out of funds,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call.

The request includes $3.3 billion for shelter, food and other requirements for migrants in custody, $1.1 billion for personnel, and $178 million for information technology and other needs, officials said.