Immigrants sit at the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas, while being detained, on July 15, 2014.

Immigrants sit at the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen, Texas, while being detained, on July 15, 2014. Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times/AP

GOP Proposes More National Guard Troops for the Border Crisis

House GOP lawmakers claim their border plan is a 'major change' that will cost 'less than half' of the president's nearly $4 billion border response package. By Billy House and Rachel Roubein

A special House "working group" led by Rep. Kay Granger has finalized a draft of its "set of principles" for GOP legislation dealing with the border crisis—including a call for putting an end to the "catch-and-release" system for unaccompanied minors.

Several of the proposals clash dramatically with what House and Senate Democrats say they will go along with.

And the two chambers also appear to be on a collision course for how much funding an emergency bill will contain. Senate Democrats say they will go along with President Obama's request for $3.7 billion, but House Republicans are looking at less than half of that amount.

Members of the House working group, including Reps. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., and Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said a completed package of recommendations by Granger's staffers was delivered to each of their offices on Thursday morning for a final sign-off.

At least some of the working group's recommendations are likely to become part of the House Republican alternative to Obama's proposal. While there could be some last-minute changes, one of the recommendations will be that children should be detained until they see an immigration judge.

The guidelines will recommend this should happen within five to seven days.

"This is a major, major change," said Salmon. "There will not be those busloads of kids coming in to the various communities; there will not be the family units dropped off at the bus station in Phoenix and Tucson, like they have been before. They will stay detained until they're adjudicated."

Salmon did not specify the number of additional judges the guidelines will call for to make this process work.

Other recommendations include:

  • Changing a 2008 law to allow allow immigrant children at the border to be voluntarily and more swiftly returned to their home countries rather than be held for deportation hearings. Many Senate and House Democrats, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, have already said they would oppose this;
  • Providing more National Guard involvement in humanitarian relief efforts, such as help in providing shelter, food, and health care;
  • "Changing the narrative" by promoting—perhaps through advertisements in Central America—the notion that the U.S. will send immigrants back home if they do not arrive legally.

House appropriators, led by committee Chairman Harold Rodgers, R-Ky., are also near completion of the funding part of their plan, and have already said their dollar figure won't come anywhere near the $3.7 billion called for by Obama.

On Thursday, Salmon said he wasn't comfortable with providing the exact dollar amount—but said it will be "less than half" of what Obama proposed.

That would set up one of an expected several differences for House Republicans with the Democratic-led Senate. There, Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski said on the Senate floor on Wednesday that she is asking for the full $3.7 billion to be approved.

"There are those who will want to take from other domestic programs. I would caution that, and, in fact, I object to the very idea of that," she said.

"The president has said this is an emergency—an emergency under the Budget Control Act of 2011. It meets the criteria that it is 'sudden, urgent, unforeseen and temporary' and deals with the 'loss of life or property' or 'threat to national security.' I think it meets that test."

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.