Obama To Request $2 Billion For Border, Illegal Children

This is an interesting turn of events for a guy and his administration who had essentially created the current situation at the border

(NY Times) (NM) President Obama will ask Congress to provide more than $2 billion in new funds to control the surge of illegal Central American migrants at the South Texas border, and to grant broader powers for immigration officials to speed deportations of children caught crossing without their parents, White House officials said on Saturday.

Mr. Obama will send a letter on Monday (he obviously couldn’t do that Saturday, cause golf) to alert Congress that he will seek an emergency appropriation for rapidly expanding border enforcement actions and humanitarian assistance programs to cope with the influx, which includes record numbers of unaccompanied minors and adults bringing children. The officials gave only a general estimate of the amount, saying the White House would send a detailed request for the funds when Congress returned after the Fourth of July recess that began Friday and ends July 7.

The president will also ask Congress to revise existing statutes to give the Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, new authorities to accelerate the screening and deportation of young unaccompanied migrants who are not from Mexico. Fast-track procedures are already in place to deport young migrants from Mexico because it shares a border with the United States.

Mr. Obama will also ask for tougher penalties for smugglers who bring children and other vulnerable migrants across the border illegally, the officials said.

This seems like a serious and reasonable proposal from Mr. Obama. One has to wonder what the catch is, considering that, as mentioned, it was his administration policies that created the “humanitarian crisis” in the first place. Perhaps he’s realizing that there is zero chance of any sort of amnesty, er, sorry, pathway to citizenship, passing Congress, particularly the House, as long as he is seen by Republicans as being weak on border security.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi headed to the border to meet with the Border Patrol and other law enforcement personnel, who are working hard to deal with the influx

(Breitbart) Saturday at a press conference from the Rio Grande Valley, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) discussed her tour of a border holding facility and addressed the humanitarian crisis of thousands unaccompanied minors flooding across the U.S.-Mexico border, which she called a “humanitarian opportunity.”

Pelosi explained, “We are all Americans — north and south in this hemisphere,” and urged America to see this as not a crisis but an opportunity “to be helpful.” She also said she wished she could simply “take home” the thousands of children temporarily housed in the overburden facilities.

Oh, wait, no, she met with the illegals, and rather than excoriate them for breaking the law, she called them Americans. Powerline notes that Nancy has plenty of room at her mansion which would allow her to take quite a few home with her. And her vineyard has lots of space. “As long as they don’t try to join a union, anyway: the Pelosi vineyard is strictly non-union.”

Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.

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