A close-door briefing Wednesday revealed that authorities are spending $250 to $1,000 per day to care for each minor apprehended crossing the U.S. border, Agence France-Presse reported, as U.S. lawmakers grapple with ways to cut down spending.
Since last October, more than 57,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Central America, have been caught entering the country illegally. Describing it as an "urgent humanitarian solution," President Barack Obama has asked for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to address and deal with the ongoing crisis.
"One of the figures that sticks in everybody's mind is we're paying about $250 to $1,000 per child," Senator Jeff Flake told reporters, citing figures presented at the closed-door briefing by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. "A lot of people were very troubled coming out of there."
With federal authorities struggling to find more cost-effective housing, medical care, counseling and legal services for the undocumented minors, some $1.8 billion of Obama's emergency supplemental plan would be allocated to the Department of Health and Human Services to address those needs, he said.
According to AFP, Senator Dianne Feinstein said the base cost per bed was $250 per day, including other services. "It goes up to $1,000 per day if you have to contract temporarily," she said, declining to provide more details. "That's what they're trying to avoid."
Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican who helped craft a comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate but has died in the House, said lawmakers "were shocked at the figures," the Associated Press reported. "I think now we're starting to see the human costs and the economic costs of providing care for those who have entered the country illegally, and it behooves us to address this as quickly as possible."
Meanwhile, U.S. officials are predicting that around 30,000 more unaccompanied children will be crossing the border by the end of September, and that 145,000 will be apprehended next year.
