President Barack Obama is expected to ask Congress on Monday for $2 billion to address the flood of immigrants crossing into the U.S. from Central America, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

The White House also reportedly is going to ask for more authority to return the immigrants home more quickly, the report said.

Combined, these efforts show an escalated effort from the Obama Administration to handle the situation at the border, after taking some heat recently for lack of response.

The New York Times reported that Obama is expected to make these request in a letter to Congress on Monday. Details of the funding request will be sent when Congress returns from holiday on July 7.

"On Monday we will inform Congress that we will be asking them to work with us to ensure that we will have the legal authorities to maximize ... our efforts," a White House official told The New York Times.

Since October, more than 91,000 people have illegally crossed the U.S. border with Mexico, 52,000 of which are children, according to the Wall Street Journal. So far this fiscal year, U.S. Border Patrol has detained more than 39,000 people traveling as families

The children coming into the country present a problem for authorities because U.S. law requires that children from countries that aren't contiguous with the U.S. must stay in the country until their deportation cases are heard.

Part of the White House's plan is to find a way to expeditiously return these children to their countries and avoid a backlog in immigration courts that can keep immigrants in the country for years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The request also is expected to include increased stiffer penalties for those who smuggle immigrants into the country and more resources to detain, process and care for children and adults who cross the border illegally, the New York Times reported.