President Barack Obama is hoping to get Congress to grant $3.7 billion in emergency funding to go toward securing the border, a request brought on by the sudden increase in the number of unaccompanied minors trying to enter the country, the New York Daily News reports.
The move marks almost double the administration’s original asking price for the project, the Daily News notes, and will most likely create some disturbance in Congress in yet another Republican face-off with the nation’s leader.
According to the report, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) noted the request, although not without mentioning that Obama had not taken his original advice to send troops to the border. A representative for Boehner said that the request would be reviewed by members of the House Appropriations Committee, who are handling the border crisis, while noting that Boehner still “supports deploying the National Guard to provide humanitarian support in the affected areas—which this proposal does not address.”
The White House has stated that the U.S. is working with the relevant Central American countries, both with their governments and with national organizations, to make sure that migrants are aware of the risks associated with traveling to the U.S., and to make it clear who is subject to deportation and who is eligible for a deferral.
According to the Daily News, most of the money, almost $2 million, would go toward the Department of Health and Human Services to help it “provide the appropriate care for unaccompanied children, consistent with federal law, while maintaining services for refugees.”
Read more at the New York Daily News.