Border agency’s top official to resign

WASHINGTON • The acting commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, John Sanders, is resigning and will leave his post on July 5, the agency said on Tuesday, a move that coincides with an outcry over the treatment of detained migrant children.

The relocation of 250 migrant children from an overcrowded Texas border patrol station, where they were held for weeks in squalid conditions without adequate food and water, has stepped up criticism from immigration activists and Democrats of Republican President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies.

The New York Times first reported that Sanders was resigning. Sanders has led the agency since April, when Trump reshuffled the management of U.S. immigration agencies under the Department of Homeland Security.

Before taking over CBP, he was the agency’s chief operating officer and had also been the Transportation Security Administration’s chief technology officer.

Dealing with a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border has been a priority for Trump but the president has proven unable to push most of his goals through Congress.

On Tuesday, U.S. House Democrats said they plan to approve $4.5 billion in emergency funding to address the crisis caused by the migrant surge, but the measure has drawn a veto threat from Trump.

“This week we have to solve the humanitarian crisis,” House of Representatives Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries told reporters, predicting that the funding package would pass the House with a “strong Democratic vote.”

Jeffries said he expected Trump to sign the bill into law despite his threat, citing the president’s recent reversals on other issues such as tariffs.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seeking to galvanize her caucus, told them the House would need a strong vote to prevail.

“A vote against this bill is a vote for Donald Trump and his inhumane, outside-the-circle of civilized attitude toward the children,” she said at a closed-door Tuesday morning meeting, according to a senior Democratic aide.

But lawmakers were also rushing to add language before the vote to mandate better health and nutrition standards at border facilities.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will deploy up to 89 agents to Guatemala by the end of August under a joint agreement to reduce irregular migration and strengthen border security, according to an official document seen by Reuters on Tuesday.

The agreement, dated May 27, was signed by Acting U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart.