Obama seeks $3.7B to handle migrants
Kids keep flocking to border.
WASHINGTON— President Barack Obama asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funding Tuesday to help confront what he called an “urgent humanitarian situation,” the unprecedented flood of children arriving without parents on the southern border.
The funding request is nearly double what the administration previously signaled might be necessary and shows the deepening concern at the White House about the more than 52,000 unaccompanied minors, mostly from Central America, who have flocked across the border since October.
The unexpectedly large supplemental funding request met immediate resistance from Republicans in Congress, who argued that any additional spending should be coupled with stronger border security measures and stepped up deportations, which Democrats oppose.
Administration officials will testify Wednesday before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson will appear Thursday before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Lawmakers are expected to press for an explanation of the administration’s strategy for handling the crisis.
Officials said the largest share of the money, $1.8 billion, would go to Health and Human Services to provide adequate food, housing and medical care for thousands of youths cramming emergency detention facilities at Border Patrol facilities, on military bases and elsewhere as they await legal processing.
There also would be $1.6 billion for the departments of Justice and Homeland Security for more immigration judges and other resources to clear badly backlogged immigration dockets. Officials also aim to deter other young people from heading north by using more drone aircraft and other law enforcement assets to track human smuggling networks in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
A senior administration official described the plan as a “super-aggressive deterrence and enforcement strategy,” speaking on condition of anonymity to provide details.
The funding request was announced shortly before Obama left on a previously scheduled trip to Austin, Texas, and Dallas, where he will raise money for fellow Democrats and give a speech on the economy. He agreed Tuesday to meet with Republican Gov. Rick Perry, a sharp critic of administration policies, after Perry refused “a quick handshake on the tarmac.”
Most of the unaccompanied minors, who are under 18, have crossed into the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and Perry has blasted the federal response as “inept.” Obama is not scheduled to visit the border during his two-day visit.
White House officials argue that many of the youths are fleeing drug cartels and sex trafficking in Central America and need protection under U.S. law until judges can determine if they qualify for asylum.
“We’re talking about children who are coming either alone or in the hands of smugglers,” a White House official said Tuesday, requesting anonymity. “That’s how the president views it. That’s how the administration is approaching it.”
“But while we are focused on making sure we provide proper care,” the official said, “we also intend to apply the law.”
The officials declined to say how many more youths would be deported, or how quickly, under the administration’s proposal.
A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House Appropriations Committee and a separate Republican working group on border issues would review the White House proposal.
“The speaker still supports deploying the National Guard to provide humanitarian support in the affected areas, which this proposal does not address,” said the spokesman, Michael Steel.
Other House Republicans were far more critical, saying most of the money would be used to help young migrants who illegally cross the border, not to stop them from trying. Some called for halting aid to countries that don’t act more forcefully to stop their citizens from leaving, or to use more money to beef up border security.
“President Obama created this disaster at our southern border and now he is asking to use billions of taxpayer dollars without accountability or a plan in place to actually stop the border crisis,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Goodlatte wants the administration to increase the number of deportations and to boost investigations into allegedly fraudulent asylum claims. Goodlatte added that Republicans would work with Obama to change current lawto speed deportations.