Senate passes bill to spend billions on border crisis

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate passed an emergency spending bill on a vote of 84-8 to provide the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with an additional $4.5 billion to address the crisis at the border.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin K. McAleenan released the following statement after the vote:

“Today the Senate demonstrated their bipartisan commitment to addressing the humanitarian crisis at our border and supporting the men and women of DHS. This emergency funding addresses the immediate and dire need to provide safe care for the children and families coming across our border at unprecedented levels. I urge lawmakers to work together quickly and collaboratively to swiftly pass a bill.”

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) made the following statement after voting in favor of the bill which is aimed at addressing “the historic influx of undocumented migration at the southern border”:

“Make no mistake, the immigration crisis at the southern border is not manufactured, as some have suggested. It’s real and it demands action. Record-level illegal border crossings are straining government resources, crowding migrant housing facilities and adding to the existing backlog in immigration courts. This appropriations bill is necessary to address ballooning migrant housing and care needs, but it falls far short of fixing the underlying causes of the ongoing crisis.“Today’s vote confirms that Senate Republicans are committed to action, but this crisis will persist if Democrats continue to block critically important reforms that improve border security and protect against exploitation of migrants. The status quo only encourages more families to embark on dangerous journeys to the United States, further enabling human smugglers to profit off the exploitation of children and other vulnerable people. We cannot afford to continue throwing money at this problem without taking action to solve the underlying drivers of this humanitarian crisis,” Grassley said.

The Southern Border Supplemental Appropriations Act provides $4.6 billion to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for migrant processing, housing and care. However, the bill provides no funding for border security or immigration enforcement and expressly prohibits DHS from reprograming existing agency funding to meet its priorities. It also fails to expand detention space for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The bill also prohibits information sharing between HHS and ICE to assist in background checks for unaccompanied child migrants. Grassley has expressed concern that insufficient vetting of sponsors has led to child exploitation and recycling – the smuggling of young children back and forth across the border to help unrelated adults appear as a “family unit” so they get special treatment when entering the country. Grassley has cosponsored legislation to allow for information sharing between HHS and DHS to prevent abuse and exploitation of child migrants. At a recent hearing, Grassley expressed frustration that such legislation would face opposition in Congress.

“And it’s outrageous that we can’t pass legislation to correct this. And somehow, you know, passing a little piece of legislation stopping [child] recycling as an example – that wouldn’t be so important that you wouldn’t worry about having a bipartisan agreement to get a bill passed,” Grassley said in the hearing.

The U.S. House passed a border crisis bill earlier, but with differences that must be worked out before a final bill goes to President Trump to consider. One of the main differences is in the House version, passed mainly by the Democratic majority, there is no money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which liberal legislators have criticized or want to outlaw entirely.