White House Asks Congress for $3.7 Billion for Child Migrant Crisis

By Julianne Hing Jul 08, 2014

The White House has filed a $4 billion request with Congress to manage the flows of tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children who’ve arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border this year, the New York Times reported. The request is nearly double the amount the Obama administration projected when it announced plans to ask for emergency funds. 

The money would be spent to beef up border security, detention facilities, Border Patrol and immigration judge staffing, and to handle the care of children while they await processing. The request was filed the day after the Obama administration announced that most of the children would not be allowed to stay in the U.S. even though children report fleeing from destabilizized countries in Central America where violence, conscription into gangs, and poverty threatens their lives. 

But, fear human rights advocates, by approaching the waves of children as an immigration problem instead of what it really is–a refugee crisis–the U.S. is missing the point.