Agencies within the Department of Homeland Security have reported that they will run out of money between August and September unless the president’s spending request is approved.
From the Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security agency responsible for removing immigrants who are in the country illegally will run out of money by mid-August unless Congress approves President Barack Obama’s emergency request for $3.7 billion to help deal with a flood of child immigrants crossing the border illegally without their parents, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says.
Additionally, Customs and Border Protection, whose 20,000-plus Border Patrol agents are responsible for arresting illegal border crossers, will be out of money by mid-September at the “current burn rate,” Johnson told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday as he defended the president’s emergency budget request.
Depending on which congressman you ask, undocumented children are either living a life of luxury or they’re being housed in deplorable conditions, but this shortfall in funding goes way beyond opening additional processing facilities.
Republicans are demanding tighter control of the border, but the nation’s border patrol will run out of funds in the next two months if House Republicans don’t act.
And House leadership has shown no signs that they will pass a spending bill before they leave DC for summer recess. The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee said today that his committee will not approve the president’s request.
“No, that’s too much,” Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said when asked whether the House would pass the spending bill outlined by the administration.
Rogers did not offer specifics of what House Republicans would prefer to pass instead.
When Republicans aren’t suing the president for doing something they demanded (delaying the employer mandate included in Obamacare), they’re preventing him from doing something they’re demanding.
They want a crackdown at the border, but they don’t want to pay for it.
Moreover, congressional Republicans have demanded increased spending on border security while debating immigration reform, but they seem to have changed their mind now that President Obama is asking for it.