US homeland chief presses $3.7B border request

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Thursday will press Congress on President Barack Obama's request for $3.7 billion to help deal with thousands of unaccompanied child immigrants who have overwhelmed the Border Patrol in Texas.

Johnson's scheduled appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee comes a day after Obama met with Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a critic of the president's handling of what Obama has called an "urgent humanitarian situation" at the border with Mexico.

Obama also met with faith leaders and other Texas officials to discuss the more than 57,000 children, mostly from Central America, who have been caught crossing the border without their parents since Oct. 1. At the same time, immigration officials have arrested more than 39,000 immigrants, mostly mothers and children, traveling as family groups.

Obama said he was open to suggestions from the Texas governor and others that he dispatch National Guard troops to the border but warned that such a solution would only work temporarily. He urged Republicans to grant his emergency spending request so the government will have the resources to put a variety of ideas into action.

"The problem here is not major disagreement," Obama said. "If they're interested in solving the problem, then this can be solved. If the preference is for politics, then it won't be solved."

Obama resisted calls to visit the border during his Texas trip, prompting criticism from Republicans and even some Democrats. White House spokesman Josh Earnest defended Obama's decision, saying the president has "sufficient visibility to the problems."

Some Republicans made it clear that Obama's budget request would be a hard sell.

"I cannot vote for a provision which will then just perpetuate an unacceptable humanitarian crisis that's taking place on our southern border," said Republican Sen. John McCain.

In the House of Representatives, Republican Speaker John Boehner was noncommittal about bringing the spending measure to a vote.

"If we don't secure the border, nothing's going to change," Boehner told reporters.

Republicans blamed the president's decision to relax some deportation rules for fueling rumors circulating in Central America that once here, migrant children would be allowed to stay.

The president's emergency budget request includes funding for the Justice Department to hire 40 new immigration judge teams and about $1 billion for immigration enforcement efforts within the Homeland Security Department to help speed removal of immigrant families traveling with children, in addition to about $295 million to support repatriation, reintegration and border security efforts in Central America.

The Justice Department also announced Wednesday that deportation cases involving families and unaccompanied children would be moved to the top of court dockets. That means lower priority cases will take even longer to wend through a system where there's a backlog of more than 360,000 deportation cases.