Obama Says Immigrant Children Draining Funds
The Homeland Security agency responsible for removing immigrants who are in the country illegally will run out of money by mid-August unless Congress approves President Barack Obama’s emergency request for $3.7 billion to help deal with a flood of child immigrants crossing the border illegally without their parents, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson says.
Additionally, Customs and Border Protection, whose 20,000-plus Border Patrol agents are responsible for arresting illegal border crossers, will be out of money by mid-September at the “current burn rate,” Johnson told the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday as he defended the president’s emergency budget request.
Johnson said if Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol run out of money, the Homeland Security Department “would need to divert significant funds from other critical programs just to maintain operations.”