Obama to take executive action on immigration problem

World Today

President Barack Obama is asking Congress for $2 billion to deal with the “urgent humanitarian situation” of migrant children being held at the border by United States Border Patrol. CCTV’s Jim Spellman has the latest.

Since October of 2013, over 52,000 children traveling alone from Mexico, and increasingly Central America, have flooded the U.S. border. As the population of migrant kids expands, it is raising questions about what the U.S. government should do with these children.

President Obama is asking Congress for more power, and more money, to allow the administration to send these kids back to their home countries more quickly, while also improving security in their home countries in order to stop people from making the journey north in the first place. The president is also proposing a “Border Security Surge” of increased immigration enforcement.

To pay for all of this, the president is asking Congress for $2 billion, and also says that if Congress will not cooperate then he will find a way to take action without their help.

To slow this surge of migration at the source, Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with leaders from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras on Tuesday to work on solutions. In addition, the U.S. is proposing to send tens of millions of dollars in aid to Central America in an effort to improve security there to eventually repatriate the immigrants that the U.S. sends back.

President Obama spoke about this Tuesday at the White House.

“The journey is unbelievably dangerous for these kids. The children who are fortunate enough to survive it, will be taken care of while they go through the legal process, but in most cases that process will lead to them being sent back home. I have sent a clear message to parents in these countries not to put their kids through this.”

Obama to take executive action on immigration problem

President Barack Obama is asking Congress for $2 billion to deal with the "humanitarian crisis" of migrant children being held at the border by United States Border Patrol. CCTV's Jim Spellman has the latest.

CCTV’s Ginger Vaughn has this report from Houston, Texas for more on the state of the undocumented youths at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Twitter: @GingerVaughnTV

U.S. immigrant crisis: Obama seeks $2 billion from Congress

CCTV's Ginger Vaughn has this report from Houston, Texas for more on the state of the undocumented youths at the U.S.-Mexico border.