Obama Border Funding Reality Check: Most Money to Care, Feed, Transport Illegal Immigrants; Little for Deportations

For the Washington Examiner, Byron York reports: It’s still a little unclear exactly how much money President Obama will request to deal with the crisis of thousands of families and unaccompanied children crossing the border into the United States illegally.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, left, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 24, as they testify on Capitol Hill in Washington before the House Homeland Security Committee hearing regarding the growing problem of unaccompanied children crossing the border into the U.S. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

But there are indications the vast majority of the funding will go to caring for the illegal immigrants who are already here — feeding, housing, and transporting them to new American homes — while a far smaller amount will go to sending some of those immigrants back to their home countries and preventing future immigrants from crossing into the U.S. illegally.

The president will ask for a large amount of money, perhaps as much as $2 billion, for the Department of Health and Human Services. Most of that will go to care for the more than 50,000 unaccompanied children who have illegally entered the United States in recent months. The law requires that border officials transfer those children to the care of HHS, which is then required to find homes for them, unite them with family members, provide legal assistance, and help them in a variety of other ways. So most of the HHS funding request, whatever it is, will go to the care of illegal immigrants who are already here.

Then there is the administration’s request for more money for the Department of Homeland Security, which handles border enforcement. But it appears that most of that money will go to care for — rather than deport — the new illegal immigrants.

The Homeland Security funding request will be presented by DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson in an appearance on Capitol Hill Wednesday. According to a draft of Johnson’s testimony circulating on Capitol Hill, the president will request $1.5 billion for DHS — divided into $433 million for the Border Patrol and $1.104 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The money will break down like this: Of the $433 million for the Border Patrol, $329 million will be for “operational costs to include care, feeding, and transportation costs of unaccompanied children and family groups,” according to the draft testimony. Of the rest of the Border Patrol money, $35 million will go for new detention facilities in Nogales and McAllen, Texas; $29 million for 180 new members of the Border Security Task Force, and $39 million for more surveillance flights by unmanned aircraft…(read more)

WashingtonExaminer.com

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