GOVERNOR VISITS BORDER
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled Monday to Texas’s border with Mexico to get a closer look at the nation’s immigration crisis. The Republican governor and possible 2016 presidential candidate toured the region and spoke with public safety officials, according to his office. The Texas Department of Public Safety provided the briefing and tours. Jindal, the son of Indian immigrants who came to the country legally, has criticized the Obama administration for giving him little information about more 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children who have been placed with sponsors in Louisiana in recent months.
— Associated Press
He’s blamed President Barack Obama for creating a climate that encouraged larger numbers of people to try to enter the United States illegally and for failing to secure the nation’s borders.
The government announced Monday it will soon close three emergency shelters it established at U.S. military bases to temporarily house unaccompanied children caught crossing the Mexican border, saying the flow of illegal entries has declined and capacity at other shelters has been expanded.
A shelter at Oklahoma’s Fort Sill is expected to close as early as Friday, the Health and Human Services Department said. Shelters in Texas at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland and in California at Naval Base Ventura County-Port Hueneme will wrap up operations in the next two to eight weeks, agency spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said.
About 7,700 children have been housed at the three military bases since shelters there opened in May and early June. They stay an average of 35 days.
Since Oct. 1 more than 57,000 unaccompanied children, mostly from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have been apprehended crossing the border. Administration officials have said as many 90,000 child immigrants could cross the border by the end of the budget year in September.
A 2008 law intended to fight trafficking in child prostitutes requires that unaccompanied child immigrants from countries that do not border the United States be provided a hearing before they can be deported. While awaiting a court date, they are handed over to Health and Human Services to be cared for until they can be reunited with a relative or other sponsor in the United States.
The crush of Central American children making illegal border crossings in recent months has strained resources and prompted President Barack Obama to ask Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funding to expand immigration courts, house the children and bolster border security. But the Democratic-majority Senate failed to act on his request before leaving Washington on Friday for a five-week break, and the Republican-controlled House approved a bill that would provide just $694 million.
The House also approved a bill to put an end to an Obama administration program that provides work permits to some young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children, and shields them from deportation for up to two years. Republicans contend the program has inspired the recent flood of young migrants, while the administration maintains most are fleeing gang violence in their home countries.
Obama promised a veto in the unlikely event that the bills reach his desk, accusing Republican lawmakers of “not even trying to solve the problem.”
The Homeland Security Department reported last month that the number of child immigrants crossing the border alone had started to decline, from as many as 2,000 each week in June to about 500 each week in mid-July. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services said said in a statement that it has “proactively expanded capacity to care for children in standard shelters, which are significantly less costly facilities” than the military bases.
The number of people caught crossing the border illegally typically falls during the hottest summer months, when the dangers of the already hazardous crossing through desert areas become extreme.
Wolfe said said the decision to close the shelters at the military bases is not the result of a the failure of the legislation, adding that they could reopen if the number of young border crossers spikes again in the near future
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