(ABC) -The Obama administration says current law is causing a humanitarian crisis on the Texas border. Children crossing alone, because they know the chances of being sent back are slim. The Department of Homeland Security says the US only sends about 20 percent of the children back to Central America. Most are reunited with parents already here or adopted by Foster parents. President Obama has now sent congress a letter asking for help. President Obama is asking Congress for more than 2-billion-dollars to address - what he calls - an "urgent humanitarian situation." Hundreds of unaccompanied children from Central America arriving at our southern border every day... and the U.S. has NO PLACE to house them.
President Obama "We have to house these kids and take care of them until the machinery under current law allows us to send them back." More than 52,000 children have been caught crossing the border since October. Most are being held at detention centers filled to capacity. Over the weekend, officials in Dallas announced that the city would find temporary housing for 2,000 of them the city's biggest humanitarian effort since taking in evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Clay Jenkins D-Dallas County Judge "We're going to take these children from chain-link enclosures and put them in compassionate care." Many Republicans argue that this recent crush at the border is a direct result of the President's immigration policies. Greg Abbott Texas Attorney General "Says it's a humanitarian crisis because presidential policies allow children to risk their lives to come to US."
But the White House blames it on a law passed under the Bush Administration that says the children cannot be immediately sent back to their homes. President Obama is now asking Congress to change that law. But in the meantime he had this message for parents in Central America. Obama "Do not send your children to the borders. If they do make it, they'll get sent back. More importantly they may may not make it." The White House is expected to send its request to Congress at some point today. But it will be at least a week before anything is done. Both the House and Senate are out for the Fourth of July recess.
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Posted By: Jeni Fa
Saturday, July 12th 2014 at 9:21AM
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