The Obama administration announced a plan to spend over $250 millions to help slow or halt the flow of undocumented children streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border. The Federal “immigration surge” was announced Friday as part of a coordinated government-wide response to the growing humanitarian crisis on the U.S. Southern border:
The plan includes almost $100 million in aid to the Central American governments of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to help reintegrate the illegal migrants whom the United States will send back, and to help keep them in their home countries, according to a White House statement.The administration also announced it will set aside $161.5 million this year for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) programs because the programs “are critical to enabling Central American countries to respond to the region’s most pressing security and governance challenges.”
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry wasn’t waiting for the Federal government to help. He announced a very ambitions border “surge” as well on Wednesday.
“Texas can’t afford to wait for Washington to act on this crisis, and we will not sit idly by while the safety and security of our citizens are threatened,” Gov. Rick Perry said in a statement.The announcement was made in a statement by Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state House Speaker Joe Straus. The state Department of Public Safety has been authorized to fund operations at about $1.3 million a week.”Until the federal government recognizes the danger it’s putting our citizens in by its inaction to secure the border, Texas law enforcement must do everything they can to keep our citizens and communities safe,” Perry said.The so-called surge will continue at least through the end of the calendar year to combat a “flood” of illegal immigrants, the statement said.”The federal government has abdicated its responsibility to secure the border and protect this country from the consequences of illegal immigration, but as Texans we know how to lead in areas where Washington has failed,” Dewhurst said.
Also, despite increasing reports that the Obama Administration was encouraging the influx of unaccompanied minors from Central America, The White House pushed back hard on that story on Friday.
Administration officials — after initially dismissing such reports — are now attempting to push back on the idea, warning parents not to send their children as officials scramble to accommodate tens of thousands who already have arrived in Texas.“Those who cross our border today illegally, even children, are not eligible for an earned path to citizenship,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said this week. “Those apprehended at our borders are priorities for removal . . . regardless of age.”
Incoming White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest also dismissed the reports that the Obama Administration was encouraging the children refugee crisis.
The flood of unaccompanied minors has become a humanitarian crisis for Texas and Arizona communities and law enforcement trying to manage the situation.
U.S. authorities estimate that between 60,000 and 80,000 children without parents will cross the border this year alone.The majority of the children apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol along the southwest border this month have been concentrated in the Rio Grande Valley sector of Texas, according to a congressional advisory Friday.As of June 18, 3,103 unaccompanied children from 11 countries were in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody along that border, the majority being from Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala, the advisory said.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY