The White House requested $3.7 billion in emergency funding from Congress yesterday to deal with an influx of Central American minors along the southern border, but the Washington Post says the proposal was quickly met with broad skepticism among Republican lawmakers, who were doubtful that the package would be approved quickly if at all. The request is part of a comprehensive strategy aimed at building more detention centers, adding immigration judges, and beefing up border patrols and air surveillance. President Obama hopes such steps will speed deportations and discourage adults from sending children on a dangerous, sometimes deadly, trip north.
GOP leaders, who have called on Obama to take stronger action, are reluctant to give the administration a “blank check” without more-detailed plans to ensure that the money would help stem the crisis at the border. The president “is asking to use billions of taxpayer dollars without accountability or a plan in place to actually stop the border crisis,” said House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). Asked if he thought Congress would approve the proposal, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said, “No, given the mood here in Washington, I don't have confidence it will happen.”