Politico
By Jake Sherman and Seung Min Kim
July 15, 2014
Senior
House Republicans are privately discussing a bill that would provide
roughly half of the $3.7 billion that President Barack Obama has
requested to combat an influx
of migrants at the Texas border, according to multiple sources involved
in the discussions.
No
final decisions have been made, but the GOP legislation is also likely
to include several policy changes, including revising a 2008 immigration
law that made it tougher
to deport children from countries other than Mexico or Canada. The
Obama administration has expressed openness to such a provision, though
it worries many congressional Democrats.
House
Republicans are also discussing language that would make it easier for
Border Patrol agents to pursue illegal migrants at the border. The Obama
administration designated
roughly 500,000 acres of land near the border as a national monument,
which the GOP says hampers law enforcement.
These
discussions are ongoing, and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) along with
incoming Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are looking to
Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte
(R-Va.) and Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas) for counsel. Granger, a member
of the Appropriations Committee, leads a GOP border task force and
updated fellow House Republicans on the group’s findings on Tuesday.
Her
seven-member group was meeting with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh
Johnson on Tuesday, and Granger said she wants to issue formal
recommendations later Tuesday or
early Wednesday morning.
“An
average case of someone coming across the border illegally, going
through the process that we have, will take between a year and a half or
as long as five years,”
Granger said Tuesday morning. “With 57,000 unaccompanied children,
that’s just not acceptable. So we’ve got to change that.”
Separate
from revising the 2008 anti-trafficking law, Granger and her group want
to recommend adding immigration court judges — perhaps bringing some
out of retirement
— to ease the caseload, additional border-security measures, and
bolstering National Guard presence at the border.
Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said Monday evening his panel is “combing through” Obama’s request.
Boehner
told reporters Tuesday morning he expects to have a clearer sense of
his plan by the end of the week. Asked what he thinks should be done,
Boehner said he has
“lots” of ideas but declined to detail them.
The
border bill is one piece of a suddenly complex July schedule for the
House. The chamber will vote on a patch to the Highway Trust Fund this
week, and is considering
passing a stop-gap spending bill to prevent a shutdown in the fall
before leaving for August recess. The Export-Import Bank will expire at
the end of September and the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act must also be
updated.
Boehner’s
chamber will also pass a resolution to sue President Barack Obama for
what they consider a misuse of his executive authority.
But
the border crisis will dominate the July agenda. Health and Human
Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell is briefing House Democrats
Tuesday morning on the administration’s
supplemental request.
About
half of the $3.7 billion request is allocated to the health agency,
which is charged with caring for the unaccompanied children.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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