Since last October more than 57,000 children have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border alone. Most are from Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala.
Mr. Obama requested Congress to approve $3.7 billion to handle the growing number of immigrant children. The majority of that money would go to Health and Human Services and Homeland Security.
HHS Secretary Sylvia Matthews Burwell met privately with dozens of governors Sunday as the Obama administration tried to get support from the leaders of states that will host thousands of the Central American children.
Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, which controls spending, told reporters on Friday: “It’s too much money. We don’t need it.”
Since 2001, Congressman Mike Rogers has represented the 8th district in Michigan and is currently the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He chimed in today that Mr. Obama’s request for funds is not necessary.
Obama “has tools in his toolbox” to deal with humanitarian issues and deter more children from coming to the U.S., Rogers said.
“We can safely get them home,” Rogers said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He said, “And that’s where the president needs to start. So he needs to re-engage, get folks who are doing administrative work on the border. They need to make sure they send a very clear signal.”
“The best way to (stem the flow) is for planeloads of these young people to be returning to the country of origin and their families,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CNN on Sunday. McCain said it will deter families and “coyotes” who solicit money to get children to the border because they will see it’s an ineffective way to get their kids into the U.S. “Then it will stop — and not before,” he said.