The Obama Administration is requesting $3.7 billion in emergency funding to address the surge of thousands of children who have crossed the United States border.
The funding would be divided between several agencies to help in dealing with the surge of children.
The biggest portion of the funding will be going to the Department of Health and Human Services; a total of 1.8 billion. The Department of Justice will receive $64 million and Homeland Security will get 1.1 billion.
The administration says that the funding is needed to cover costs like increased man hours from border patrol agents, increased surveillance, and temporary care and legal services for the in-pouring of immigrants.
“The law will be enforced,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday. “And what that means is it means that these children who have been apprehended will go through the immigration court process and if they are found to not have a legal basis for remaining in this country, they’ll be returned.” Earnest also said that the majority of the immigrating children would be unqualified for humanitarian relief.
So far, over 52,000 immigrants have crossed the border since last October. Texas Governor Rick Perry, said last month, “I’ve known about this for two years. The president has known about this.” Obama and Perry plan to discuss the issue on Wednesday.
The request of funding will go to a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.
