Republicans Still Refusing Immigration Funds

The humanitarian crisis at the US Mexican border has once again become a partisan issue more than anything else. Barack Obama has asked congress to approve a request for $3.7 billion in emergency funds to deal with the issues on the border, and Republicans are still refusing to have anything to do with it. Now, not only have things come to a head because of Republicans inability to do their job in Congress, but they are also refusing to approve the immigration funds that would deal with the humanitarian crisis.

There are an estimated 57,000 unaccompanied children in the country at this point in time. Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn, who is a republican, came to the conclusion that the $3.7 billion, “That’s $60,000 per child we’re going to spend, in emergency money.” He would rather buy all of the children one way plane tickets back to their home country and he is wrong in so many ways with this idea.

First off, the major issues that republicans are trying to push are faster deportations, and a stronger border. In the $3.7 billion that Obama has requested from Congress, he has planned where the money will go, and it is going exactly where republicans want it to go. His proposal has $1.6 billion for faster deportations and $433 million for strengthened border security. The two biggest things that republicans want are the two things that Obama has proposed to spend the most money on.

Secondly, when President George W Bush was in office he put a law into place that guaranteed children, from countries that aren’t directly touching the US, proper deportation hearings, giving them a fighting chance to attempt to get asylum. This law was put into place to prevent situations like these where people want to buy thousands of children one way plane tickets.

And lastly, the Center for American Progress reported that the actual cost of apprehending, detaining, and deporting a child is about $23,000. But with many of these children turning themselves in, it is much less expensive than that. The cost for deporting a child that has turned themselves in is less than $10,000, as long as the deportation hearing occurs within 60 days. Another thing that Obama has proposed to invest in, seeing as he requested $64 million of the $3.7 billion go towards funding 40 judiciary teams whose sole purpose is to speed up deportation hearings.

What Republicans aren’t seeming to understand is that not doing their job is hindering the entire country and its efforts to move forward and deal with the humanitarian crisis. Bill Clinton said it best, “We think ‘we’re all in this together’ is a better philosophy than ‘you’re on your own.’”