Free Republic

Senate Democrats will chop $1 billion from President Obama’s emergency spending request to secure the Texas border but have rejected Republican demands to change legal protections for child immigrants from Central America. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) told colleagues Tuesday that she will move a bill with $2.7 billion in emergency spending for the border, substantially less than the $3.7 billion requested by Obama, according to Democratic sources. The legislation will not include language demanded by Republicans and some centrist Democrats giving the administration more flexibility to swiftly deport children from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and other noncontiguous...

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) signaled Wednesday she will not amend a 2008 human trafficking law with the emergency spending bill addressing the Texas border crisis. Mikulski also questioned Republican calls to deploy the National Guard to help secure the Southern border. She argued the 2008 William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act did not cause the surge of unaccompanied minors from Central America, as some critics contend. Instead, she said gang violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and human smugglers known as coyotes are to blame. “Our problem is not the children. Our problem is what causes...

Speaker John Boehner on Thursday said Republicans will not give a “blank check” to President Obama to deal with the crisis on the border. While Boehner (R-Ohio) said no decisions have been made on legislation, he was adamant that there will be strings attached to the emergency funding that Obama has requested to deal with the thousands of unaccompanied children who have entered into the United States. “I can tell you this: We're not giving the president a blank check," Boehner said. "Beyond that, we'll await further discussions with our members before we make a final decision." With Congress set...