On Friday, Kentucky Rep. Hal Rogers, chairman of the House's Appropriations Committee in charge of spending, said that Barack Obama's request for funding to handle the influx of unaccompanied Central American minors crossing the border will not be approved.

The president has asked for $3.7 billion to handle the crisis, Associated Press reports. The money would go to acquiring additional immigration detention facilities, immigration judges, State Department programs and more. In a meeting with members of the House, Rogers told reporters that the number was too big.

"It's too much money," he said. "We don't need it."

When asked if the House would grant the president the money, the republican responded with "no."

"There are pieces of it that need to be dealt with immediately, and that's what we are working on," Rogers said according to Bloomberg.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest added that "we're open to working with Democrats and Republicans in Congress to get this done."

"The president has moved quickly to be very clear about what specifically needs to be funded, and we would like to see Republicans back up their rhetoric with the kind of urgent action that this situation merits," he explained.

House Minority Leady Nancy Pelosi of California said Thursday that democrats do not yet know "what price we'll have to pay" in order to get Congress to approve of Obama's request.

Over 52,000 unaccompanied minors have been caught at the border from October 2013 through June 15, Bloomberg reports, most of them from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

On Friday, the Hispanic Caucus, which is filled completely by democrats, also discussed the crisis.

"I don't know of a man or a woman in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus who is going to vote to undermine the rights of these children," Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill, said. "It would be unconscionable."


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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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