Homeland Security Agency Continues Push for Emergency Funds to Handle Immigration Crisis, Stresses Looming Budget Deficit
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Thursday the department will soon run out of money due to the extra funds needed to care for the influx of undocumented immigrants.
According to The Associated Press, the agency will run out of money by mid-August unless Congress approves President Barack Obama's request to allocate $3.7 billion to handle the large number of unaccompanied child migrants crossing the border.
Johnson added that Customs and Border Protection will be bankrupt by September at the "current burn rate."
Johnson made the statements to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday in support of the president's emergency budgetary request.
According to Johnson, funds will have to be diverted from other programs to fund the agency's operations.
Johnson and other officials from the administration, such as Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, urged Congress to allocate the extra funds. However, a number of Republicans in Congress will only agree to the emergency funding if there is a compromise that the agency will more quickly deport minors arriving from Central America.
More than 40,000 child migrants have crossed into the U.S. from Central America this year.
Republicans want the children deported quickly, but the Obama administration left that request out of the spending proposal due to protests from many Democrats and immigrant rights groups.
Yet House and Senate Democrats did not say deportations would end negotiations.
"It's not a deal-breaker," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told the AP. "Let them have their face-saver. But let us have the resources to do what we have to do."
Johnson said "discretion" is needed to more swiftly return Central American children to their countries of origin, which would help the department prevent more minors from coming into the states.
A child trafficking law passed in 2008 to protect sex trafficking victims requires that young migrants from noncontiguous countries -- anywhere other than Canada or Mexico -- receive court hearings.
Many Democrats oppose changing the trafficking bill.
"I can assure you that I will fight tooth and nail changes in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act," Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said at a hearing on the situation.
Conversely, Republicans like House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said they do not want to give Obama a "blank check" to deal with the situation, as they claim many child migrants are coming to the U.S. due to rumors that they will be able to stay. They are thus insisting on policy changes, such as facilitating speedy deportations.
The immigration court system is backlogged, meaning minors coming from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are released to relatives living in the U.S. and don't attend their eventual court hearings.
GOP members want the administration to treat children from Central America the same as children from Mexico.
White House officials have supported such changes, but immigration activists are urging the administration not to change the 2008 law.