President Obama to seek $2 Billion for Undocumented Alien Crisis at U.S.-Mexico border

By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

President Barack Obama will seek $2 Billion from Congress to assist the United States Department of Homeland Security handle the undocumented alien crisis of Central American refugees, particularly unaccompanied minor children, on the United States-Mexico border, as well as seek fast track authority for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deport minor children to their original country.

Since October of 2013, more than 60,000 undocumented minor children, mostly from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, have been detained at the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas attempting to cross illegally into the U.S., averaging about 1,200 per day at the present moment and causing a humanitarian refugee crisis.

Over 90,000 undocumented minor children are expected to be detained by the end of the summer of 2014 attempting to enter the U.S. illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border, fleeing from extreme poverty, gang warfare, and despair in their home countries.

Currently, U.S. law does not authorize the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to deport undocumented minor children under fast track procedures available for adults, requiring Congress to change the law. Under current law, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has 48 hours to determine the age, citizenship, and status of minor children detained entering the U.S. and within 72 hours later must transfer undocumented minor children to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services which must provide them with food and shelter while their immigration cases are pending. This law enacted during President George W. Bush’s term is what is causing the humanitarian refugee crisis of unaccompanied minor children to the U.S. and causing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to release the undocumented minor children to family members within the U.S. or provide food and shelter to them until their immigration cases are resolved, which there are not enough shelters for them in the U.S..

Congress is expected to leave Washington, D.C. for their Fourth of July break week and not return until Monday, July 7th. It remains to be seen what Congress will do with President Obama’s $2 Billion request for U.S. Department of Homeland Security funding to handle and manage the current undocumented minor children humanitarian refugee crisis afflicting the U.S.-Mexico border.