In a development that could reveal the latest views in Congress on immigration policy, the Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a hearing Thursday on President Barack Obama’s emergency supplemental request for funding to handle the unaccompanied children arriving from Central America at the Texas border.

The witnesses will be Homeland Security Committee Chairman Jeh Johnson, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and State Department Counselor Thomas Shannon.

The hearing will be held at 2:30 p.m. in Room 206 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The Office of Management and Budget released the administration’s supplemental request today, saying it intended to make the handling of the arrivals more “efficient” while continuing to treat the situation as humanitarian and providing more resources to go after criminal networks that may be transporting the children. (See link below).

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said “The Appropriations Committee and other members, including the working group on the border crisis led by Rep. Kay Granger, will review the White House proposal. The speaker still supports deploying the National Guard to provide humanitarian support in the affected areas — which this proposal does not address.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans and Democrats who visited the border last week disagreed vigorously about what they found.

The bipartisan group, led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., included Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Blake Fahrenthold, R-Texas, Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and Joe Garcia, D-Fla.

Goodlatte noted that the delegation went to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and visited a Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement facility, the McAllen Border Patrol Station, and Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville.

The group also went on a tour with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on the Rio Grande River to witness the challenges the Border Patrol faces.

On the second day, members spent the day at the Port Isabel Detention Facility where they met with officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Justice, Health and Human Services, and CBP.

Goodlatte’s conclusions

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.
Goodlatte said his “key findings” concluded that:

“1. The vast majority of Central American minors who are unaccompanied meet up with their parents who are already in the United States illegally. Further, these parents often had a role in smuggling the minors into the United States.”

“2. Border Patrol agents stated unequivocally that the best way to stop the surge of Central Americans is deterrence and there must be an end of what is now essentially ‘catch and release.’

However, it's clear that currently there are little, if any, consequences for illegal immigration. Word has spread to the Americas and beyond that women and children are not priorities for removal, as outlined in the Obama Administration's immigration enforcement ‘priorities.’

Additionally, many of these minors and families are able to game the asylum process since most applications are rubberstamped for approval. In fact, an internal Department of Homeland Security report states there is proven or possible fraud in up to 70 percent of asylum applications.”

“3. Stringent environmental rules prevent Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector from accessing federal lands along the border.

Border Patrol agents cited restrictions on federal lands as a burden to doing their job of securing the border. The Departments of Interior and Agriculture have rules that prevent Border Patrol agents from accessing federal lands within 100 miles of the border under the guise of environmental preservation.

The House Judiciary Committee has passed legislation, the SAFE Act, which would stop this foolish policy.”

Goodlatte added, "This trip has confirmed that the current crisis at the border is a disaster of President Obama’s own making.”

“While there are some laws that complicate how we deal with minors from Central America coming the U.S. illegally, it is crystal clear that President Obama has many tools he could use now to quell this activity in the Rio Grande Valley and prevent minors from making the dangerous journey to the United States.

“If President Obama wants to stop this problem, he should enforce our immigration laws and quit using his pen and phone to create administrative legalization programs. Additionally, he needs to direct officials at the Department of Homeland Security to crack down on asylum fraud and implement deterrents to stop people from entering in violation of the law. This would send the unequivocal message that it is no longer worth the risk to subject children to the dangers of the perilous trip north to our southern border.”

   Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla.

Democratic perspective

But the three Democratic lawmakers on the tour issued a far different statement.

Lofgren, Jackson Lee and Garcia called on the administration “to increase efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for tens of thousands of unaccompanied children apprehended on the U.S.–Mexico border.”

They said, “After completing a tour of part of the southwest border this week, several things have become very clear to us:

“First, the Border Patrol has done an excellent job in an extremely difficult situation, and the men and women protecting and apprehending individuals at the border deserve our thanks.

“Second, after being briefed by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum specialists, we learned many thousands of these children are bona fide refugees fleeing dangerous situations. They are deserving of protection under international and domestic law.

Additionally, countless others have received special immigrant juvenile status following adjudication of dependency proceedings by state judges based on findings of abuse, neglect, or abandonment by a parent.

“Third, the conditions of small children confined in Border Patrol stations are unacceptable. Countless children — even toddlers — are currently being held in holding cells in Border Patrol stations that were never designed to care for them.”

“Finally, going forward, we need top to bottom, bipartisan immigration reform. We also need a strong, multinational effort to address the causes that are driving these children to flee from their homes. Only by dealing with the root causes of violence and predation in Central America will we adequately address this sharp spike of unaccompanied children in the United States. These children deserve better; our country must do better.”

▪ White House — $3.7 billion Supplemental Appropriation Request
▪ — Fact Sheet — Emergency Supplemental Request to Address the Increase in Child and Adult Migration from Central America in the Rio Grande Valley Areas of the Southwest Border