HOUSE MOVES TOWARD VOTE ON BORDER BILL
-- House Republicans revived their bill on the U.S.-Mexico border crisis in dramatic fashion Friday, preparing to pass it after winning over conservatives with tough new provisions that could threaten deportation for hundreds of thousands of immigrants already working in this country legally. President Barack Obama condemned the Republican action and said he'd act unilaterally, as best he could.
Obama said no. "They're not even trying to solve the problem," the president said. "I'm going to have to act alone, because we do not have enough resources."
Obama said he would reallocate resources where he could, while making clear his options were limited without congressional action.
The new GOP border bill adds $35 million more for the National Guard, which would go to reimburse states for guard deployments. Like earlier versions, it would increase spending for overwhelmed border agencies, add more immigration judges and detention spaces, and alter a 2008 anti-trafficking law to permit Central American kids to be sent back home without deportation hearings. That process is currently permitted only for unaccompanied minors arriving from Mexico and Canada.
The bill would pay for strapped border agencies only for the final two months of this budget year, falling far short of the $3.7 billion Obama initially requested to deal with the crisis into next year. More than 57,000 unaccompanied youths have arrived since October, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, plus tens of thousands more migrants traveling as families.
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