President Barack Obama has asked the US Congress to approve $3.7 billion (€2.7 billion) in emergency funding to tackle the crisis along the Mexican border caused by an influx of unaccompanied child migrants fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.
Some $1.8 billion of the total sum, almost twice the amount Obama administration officials had previously indicated would be require to try to deal with the problem, will be spent on providing detention care for the apprehended children who travelled without an adult guardian. The money will also used to pay for increased border patrols and the detention and removal of adult illegal immigrants.
Unprecedented increase
The US government has struggled to cope with an unprecedented wave of illegal children and families being caught crossing the southwestern US border through the Rio Grande valley since last year. More than 52,000 unaccompanied children have been apprehended by US border officials since October.
About three-quarters of them have travelled from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. This compares with fewer than 4,000 children from these countries caught crossing the border in 2011.
The US government is trying to strike a balance between providing urgent care for migrant children held in custody and sending a strong enforcement message to try to deter further arrivals into the country.
Describing the surge of immigrants as an “urgent humanitarian situation,” the White House has said that the newly funded “surge of resources” means cases will be processed fairly and as quickly as possible, ensuring protection for asylum seekers and refugees while promptly removing individuals who do not qualify for asylum.
The request to Congress was made as the United Nations pushed for many of the Central American children to be treated as refugees escaping armed conflict. Such a designation has no legal standing in the US but it will put further pressure on American lawmakers to respond to the crisis by accepting requests for asylum.
Honduras has the highest murder rate in the world for a country not involved in a conflict, while gang violence has escalated in El Salvador following the end of a truce and as Californian gang members are deported back to Central American countries in recent years.
Mr Obama has invited the Republican governor of Texas Rick Perry to meet him to discuss the border crisis during his fund-raising and economic trip to the state this week after Mr Perry declined a brief greeting with him when he arrived in the state capital of Austin.
