House Speaker John Boehner announced Tuesday that House Republicans are finalizing a bill to address the surge of migrant children coming over the southern U.S. border from Central America. The $659 million bill, provides much less than President Barack Obama’s $3.7 billion request.
Boehner said that he expects the House to pass the bill Thursday.
“I think there’s sufficient support in the House to move this bill,” Boehner told reporters after a House GOP conference meeting. “We’ve got a little more work to do, though.”
The bill, however, has little chance of passing through the Senate. That’s because it would, among other things, change a 2008 law that requires now-backlogged immigration courts to screen children who aren’t from Mexico or Canada. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid oppose changing that provision, arguing it would give the unaccompanied minors — many of whom are from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — fewer legal protections and that there are other ways of speeding up immigration cases.
The Senate is voting on its own $2.7 billion bill — which doesn’t include the policy change – as soon as Wednesday.
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SOURCE: Alex Rogers
TIME
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