Obama Seeks More than $2 Billion in Border Control Funds

Wall Street Journal

By Laura Meckler

June 29, 2014

http://online.wsj.com/articles/obama-seeks-2-billion-to-address-surge-in-illegal-border-crossings-1404022834?mod=WSJ_hppMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond&cb=logged0.49383747624233365

Two girls watch a World Cup soccer match from their holding area at a U.S. border-control center in Nogales, Ariz., where many Central American immigrant children are being held.

President Barack Obama is seeking more than $2 billion to respond to the surge in children and other migrants from Central America who are illegally crossing the U.S. border, and is asking for new authority to return them home more quickly, the White House said Sunday.

Together, the requests represent a significant escalation in the Obama administration's response to the recent increase in migrants crossing the Southern border, which has presented a logistical, political and humanitarian crisis.

While the administration already has signaled it will need more money to confront the volume of migrants, this marks the first time the White House is asking for the power to deport children faster.

Mr. Obama plans to make the requests in a letter to Congress, a White House official said. "On Monday, we will inform Congress that we will be asking them to work with us to ensure that we have the legal authorities to maximize…our efforts," the official said. The appeal was first reported by the New York Times.

The official said Sunday that the White House is still working with various federal agencies on the details of its supplemental appropriations request, but the total is likely to be more than $2 billion.

Mr. Obama has been criticized by congressional Republicans, who say he hasn't been tough enough on illegal immigration and that his policies are indirectly encouraging the recent surge of border crossings.

The administration has also been scrutinized by immigration advocates, who argue that the welfare of children escaping violence in Central America should be the administration's primary concern.

"Expanding deportation efforts that the president himself has called inhumane, in the face of vulnerable children in need, is the worst of the dehumanizing Washington politics he went into office with a vow to change," said B. Loewe, spokesman for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

A record number of minors—more than 52,000 children since the fiscal year began in October—have been streaming across the border. Most of the new migrants come from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, entering the U.S. through the Rio Grande Valley in Texas.

U.S. law requires that apprehended children be turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which places them with sponsors in the U.S.—usually family—while their deportation cases are heard.

Clogged immigration courts and an array of legal avenues to extend their time in the U.S. can result in these young migrants remaining north of the border for years or permanently.

Administration officials and other experts are concerned that the backlog may encourage parents to send their children on what can be a perilous—and even fatal—journey to the U.S., often in the hands of abusive smugglers.

The White House says it will ask for authority to return children to their native countries faster. This will apply to nations that aren't contiguous to the U.S., as a law already allows for a quick return to Mexico, given the shared border.

The administration also has asked for a "sustained border security surge," a request likely to be welcomed by congressional Republicans, who have said the increase in crossings is diluting the ability of the border patrol to maintain security.

Moreover, the president will ask for a "significant increase" in immigration judges in an effort to clear court backlogs. The White House said it would seek to reassign some immigration judges to handle recent border-crossing cases and establish facilities to expedite the processing of these cases.

The request also will include increased penalties for those who smuggle migrants and "the resources necessary" to detain, process and care for children and adults who cross illegally.

Already this fiscal year, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended more than 39,000 people traveling as families. But with limited facilities to hold adults traveling with children, many are released with instructions to report to court later.

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