President Obama plans to request over $2 billion from Congress in order to rapidly address the growing immigrant emergency.
Currently the U.S. government is facing challenges when it comes to the rapid growth in illegal immigrants, including children in particular, arriving at the border. Facilities used for detaining illegal immigrants are becoming overfilled as there is not enough food, beds, or other facilities for everyone. The number of U.S. illegal immigrants continues to grow, with officials predicting that as many as 80,000 children alone, without their families, will cross the border. Officials claim the growing number of minors crossing the border is a “humanitarian crisis”, CNN reported.
Officials are asking immigrants to keep their children, as they believe it is not worth the dangerous risk for them to travel alone to the U.S., seeing as how they will more than likely be deported. White House officials will be sending help over to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador in order to assist the countries with crime and violence, according to an announcement made in the beginning of June.
According to Aljazeera America, Obama is sending out a letter to Congress on Monday to request funds to help address the crisis. The letter will also ask that Homeland Security be given more power in deporting children who come across the border illegally without their families; he is also pushing for stronger reprimands for those who smuggle their children into the country. Congress will not receive the letter until July 7th, due to holiday leave; therefore it is unknown at this time how much money will be requested and how it will be used.