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U.S. NEWS Thursday 2 May 2019

BORDER FUNDING personnel expenses, deten- 50,036 unaccompanied
Continued from Front tion beds, transportation children during the last
"DHS projects it will exhaust and investigative work on budget year, and so far this
resources well before the smuggling. The remaining budget year there have
end of the fiscal year," read $178 million would be used been 35,898 children. Their
the administration's formal for mission support, includ- average length of stay in
request letter to Congress, ing technology upgrades. a government shelter is 66
which was obtained by The It's unclear, however, if days, up from 59 during
Associated Press. Congress will approve fiscal year 2018 and 40 in
The request is just the lat- the extra funding. Getting 2016's fiscal year.
est in a flurry of efforts by Democrats and Republi- Customs and Border Pro-
the administration to cope cans to agree on how to tection on Tuesday en-
with what it calls a "crisis" address the border situa- countered its largest group
that officials say has over- tion has been a challenge, to date: 424 people, com- In this April 5, 2019, photo, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection
vehicle sits near the a section of the U.S. border wall with Mexico
whelmed federal resources especially on the heels of prised mostly of children in Calexico, Calif.
and capacity. President the longest government and families, in rural New Associated Press
Donald Trump has railed shutdown in history over Mexico.
against aides and Con- Trump's demand for border Acting Homeland Security the spike and said officials Vought, deputy director of
gress for failing to do more wall funding. Trump even- Secretary Kevin McAleen- would be submitting a the Office of Management
to address the situation, but tually declared a national an said Tuesday before a supplemental request, but and Budget, said the crisis
has also made clear he be- emergency declaration House subcommittee that didn't say for how much. was overwhelming the abil-
lieves his hard line on immi- to circumvent Congress to his department was run- In a letter to House Speak- ity of the federal govern-
gration was key to his 2016 get the funding elsewhere. ning out of money amid er Nancy Pelosi, Russell ment to respond.q
victory and intends to con- Senior administration offi-
tinue to hammer the issue cials, speaking to reporters
to motivate his base head- on condition of anonym-
ing into his 2020 reelection ity because they weren't
campaign. authorized to discuss the
It also comes a day after request by name, insisted
a 16-year-old Guatema- the new money would not
lan boy in the care of U.S. be used for border barriers
Health and Human Services and said the funds were dif-
died after falling ill with a ferent from those Trump has
fever and chills. His death sought to access through
is under investigation. Two his declaration of a nation-
other children died in Cus- al emergency.
toms and Border Protection The number of families and
custody late last year. children arriving alone at
The 2019 fiscal year budget the border is now outpac-
already contained $415 ing the number of single
million for humanitarian as- adults, putting new strains
sistance at the border, in- on the immigration system.
cluding $28 million in medi- The U.S. is on track to have
cal care, senior administra- as many as 1 million cross
tion officials said Wednes- this year, the highest num-
day. ber since the early 2000s,
But the White House now when most of those cross-
wants an extra $3.3 billion ing were single men from
to increase shelter capac- Mexico looking for work.
ity for unaccompanied mi- Border stations were not
grant children and for the constructed to handle
feeding and care of fami- such a large volume of chil-
lies, plus transportation and dren and families, and they
processing centers. have been pushed to the
Of the new request, $1.1 breaking point.
billion would go toward op- U.S. Customs and Border
erational support, including Protection encountered