The House passed, 230-195, a $4.5 billion emergency spending bill Tuesday to help the federal government cope with a massive surge of illegal immigrants along the southern border.
But it may still be weeks before any new funding is signed into law.
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The legislation passed with Democratic support only after party leaders changed the bill twice to appease liberals, adding new requirements for the treatment of illegal immigrants, such as an additional $2 million for a help center “which provides services to address the needs of immigrants in removal proceedings.”
The GOP-led Senate isn’t likely to consider the House bill.
Senators authored their own legislation, which is bipartisan and leaves out the additional requirements and services for illegal immigrants included in the House measure.
The two chambers will have to negotiate a compromise that can pass both chambers.
Given the differences between the two measures, Congress is unlikely to pass a final bill before departing for the weeklong July 4 recess.
House Democrats praised the measure as much-needed funding boost to provide humanitarian services for illegal immigrants, including medical and legal help.
The measure provides $60 million for nonprofit organizations to find nondetention housing for illegal immigrants.
The measure provides nothing to help stem the influx of the more than 100,000 illegal immigrants who have been apprehended on the border each month.
The measure also withholds additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and withholds funding sought by the GOP to investigate human trafficking that has been widely employed to smuggle children across the border.
The restrictions in the measure were included to appease liberals who say they don’t trust President Trump with the emergency funding and fear he will redirect it to deportation efforts.
Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, the top GOP lawmaker on the Appropriations Committee, called the measure “partisan and dangerous.”
Democrats argued the bill should be strictly humanitarian and pointed to reports of degrading conditions in the detention centers and shelters that border officials are using to house illegal immigrants.
“Children go without showers or clean clothes for weeks,” Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., said. “Seven- and 8-year-olds care for infants they don’t know, while toddlers go without diapers.”
Democrats blamed the crisis on President Trump.
“This crisis has been aggravated by the anti-immigration policies of this president,” Rep. José Serrano, D-N.Y., said.
Homeland Security officials say the nation’s broad asylum laws are attracting the massive surge of migrants to journey from Central America to the U.S. border, where they are often released into the country.
Democrats said they have no plans to negotiate changes to the asylum laws.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called the measure “misguided and purely political.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Senate Democrats “prefer the House bill to the Senate bill,” but Schumer will vote for the Senate measure.
“Then quickly have some kind of negotiation with the House and get something to the president’s desk ASAP,” he added. “We all believe we have to get some aid to these poor children.”
