WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday requested $3.7 billion in emergency funding from Congress to help cope with a surge of unaccompanied child immigrants from Central America.
Obama said the funds a far higher sum than he signaled he would request late last month would help ease an "urgent humanitarian situation" that has seen tens of thousands of minors from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras illegally cross the southern US border this year after a perilous overland journey across Mexico.
To stem the flow, the administration is looking to beef up border security with aerial surveillance, improve housing for the undocumented arrivals and speed up their deportations.
The appropriation would go to several US government agencies, funding an increase in the number of immigration judges, asylum officers and border agents; an expansion in court capacity; and the addition of detention facilities, the officials said.
Obama, in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, urged Congress to "act expeditiously" on his request.
The funds would expand the government's Alternatives to Detention program through increased use of ankle bracelets, which would allow migrants to stay with relatives instead of in overcrowded, expensive detention facilities while their cases are being processed.
They would also provide Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson with "flexibility" that could enable US authorities to more quickly process and repatriate Central American migrants, a White House official said.
"We are taking an aggressive approach on both sides of the border," the official told reporters, referring to US efforts to coordinate with Mexican and Central American authorities to prevent migrants from taking the journey to the United States, often with dangerous human traffickers.
"We are taking steps to both protect due process but also to remove these migrants efficiently," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A first congressional hearing on the emergency request will occur Thursday before the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Johnson is scheduled to testify.
Johnson was in Guatemala on Tuesday to discuss efforts to reduce illegal immigration. There, President Otto Perez launched a new campaign aimed at putting the brakes on the flight of migrant children.
Obama travels to Texas on Wednesday. He will not visit the border region, but he has invited Governor Rick Perry to meet with him to discuss the crisis.
Under the plan, DHS will receive $1.53 billion, including $116 million to pay for transporting migrants back to their home countries.
The Department of Health and Human Services will be allocated $1.8 billion, mostly to provide care for unaccompanied child migrants.
The State Department will receive $300 million to repatriate Central American migrants, address the underlying causes driving migration, and launch media campaigns emphasizing that illegal immigrants will not be allowed to stay in the United States. More than $60 million will be given to the Justice Department.
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