The United States administration sought on Tuesday to halt a cross-border surge of unaccompanied children from Central America, asking Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency spending and putting in place plans to quicken the youngsters' deportation hearings, according to The Associated Press.
It is President Barack Obama's most substantive effort to gain control of a humanitarian crisis along the Texas border with Mexico and fend off Republican Party critics demanding a tougher response, the AP reported.
Without government action, the administration projects more than 150,000 unaccompanied children under the age of 18 next year could be fleeing the rampant poverty and domestic, and gang-related violence in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, according to the AP.
More than 52,000 unaccompanied minors from the three countries have been caught trying to sneak over the border since October, double the number from the same period the year before, the AP reported.
The proposed actions will test Obama's ability to negotiate effectively with Republican lawmakers who have blocked much of his agenda ahead of a November election when they hope to capture the U.S. Senate from Obama's Democratic Party, according to the AP.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said he thought the Senate could pass the emergency funding bill this month, before the start of a long summer recess, but House and Senate Republican leaders could insist on offsetting any new funds with cuts in other budget items, the AP reported.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell would only say that Obama's request needed a close look to "see if it's an appropriate response to the crisis," according to the AP.
The White House said the largest portion of the requested funding, $1.8 billion, would pay to care for the children while in U.S. custody, the AP reported. Other funds would go to beefing up border enforcement, hiring more immigration judges and paying for programs to discourage deported children from again trying to slip into the United States illegally.
