Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Sunday said the House of Representatives will advance a border bill brought about by the House Appropriations Committee. The announcement comes after President Donald Trump's last minute decision to cancel a deportation raid that was scheduled for Sunday in 10 cities. Trump said he would give Congress two weeks to pass a border bill before the raid is reinstated.
According to Pelosi, the House will provide humanitarian aid that's needed to keep families together.
“The President’s failed policies have exacerbated the situation at the border, where vulnerable children endure inhumane conditions that threaten their health, well-being and sometimes, tragically, their lives. This legislation provides urgently-needed humanitarian assistance for families, including funding for food, shelter, clothing, medical care and legal assistance, and will relieve the horrific situation of over-crowding and help prevent additional deaths," Pelosi said in a statement. "And we are providing urgent assistance to local communities to help defray their costs of providing humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers."
Pelosi said the legislation "does not fund the Administration’s failed mass detention policy" and "places strict limits on influx shelters, protects sponsors from DHS immigration enforcement based on information collected by HHS during the vetting process and creates strong oversight by Congress including to protect unaccompanied children."
Here's how Democrats proposed funding would be broken down:
• $934.5 million for processing facilities, food, water, sanitary items, blankets, medical services, and safe transportation;
• $866 million to reduce reliance on influx shelters to house children;
• $200 million for an integrated, multi-agency processing center pilot program for families and unaccompanied children, with participation by non-profit organizations;
• $100 million for legal services for unaccompanied children, child advocates, and post-release services;
• $60 million to assist jurisdictions experiencing a significant influx of migrants and non-profit organizations serving those communities;
• $20 million for Alternatives to Detention;
• $15 million for the Legal Orientation Program to educate migrants about their rights and legal proceedings; and
• $9 million to speed up placement of children with sponsors and manage their cases.
Republicans took issue with the legislation because of the riders and stipulations put in the bill.
From Fox News:
Another rider allegedly includes language that would require the federal government to prospectively notify illegal immigrants that if they bring an unaccompanied child into the country and sponsor them, their illegal status would in no way be used against them, a source said, and that the child will be delivered to them without any reservation.
“So we’d not only be protecting the child smuggling loop, we’d be advertising the child smuggling loop to illegal aliens throughout the United States who would in turn then be able to have confidence they could pay a smuggler in a transnational criminal organization to smuggle a child into the country that we would then tell them we would deliver to them regardless of the law breaking involved,” the source said.