Trump vows veto as US House passes border aid bill

Published Jun 26, 2019

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Washington - The US House of

Representatives on Tuesday approved a $4.5 billion aid package

to address the migrant surge along the US-Mexico border,

including new standards for migrants in custody following

reports of poor conditions facing young children at overcrowded

facilities.

The Democratic-led House voted 230-195, mostly along party

lines, to pass the measure, but its future is uncertain. The

Republican-run Senate is working on its own version of the bill,

and Republican President Donald Trump has vowed to veto the

House legislation, with White House officials saying it would

hamstring the administration's border enforcement efforts.

Trump on May 1 requested the aid for programs that house,

feed, transport and oversee record numbers of Central American

families seeking asylum in the United States and straining

capacity at migrant shelters in border cities.

Attorneys raised alarms last week after finding more than

300 migrant children in an overcrowded Texas border patrol

station, where they said some had been held for weeks in squalid

conditions without adequate food and water.

Amid the ensuing outcry, the acting commissioner of the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, John Sanders, said

on Tuesday he was resigning.

Democrats emphasized on Tuesday that while they were

approving the border aid to address the humanitarian crisis,

they were not ratifying the administration's attempts to

restrict and discourage immigration, which Trump has made a

central focus of his presidency.

"Our legislation is a vote against the cruel attitude toward

children of this administration. This bill does not fund the

administration's failed mass detention policy. Instead it funds

effective humane alternatives to detention that have a proven

record of success," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said ahead of the

vote.

WOOING PROGRESSIVES

But Democratic leaders had to work to secure votes for the

bill from progressive lawmakers worried the Trump administration

might use the funds for other purposes, such as deportation of

migrants.

On Tuesday afternoon, Democrats added provisions to better

protect the health of migrants in the custody of US Border

Patrol agents, including standards for medical care and

nutrition. They also added language to set a three-month limit

for any unaccompanied child migrant to spend at an intake

shelter unless notice is given.

Another amendment said shelters run by contractors must meet

standards of care within six months or risk losing their

contracts. Representative Pramila Jayapal, the co-chair of the

Congressional Progressive Caucus, agreed to back the bill after

that provision was included.

The House legislation would also reinstate hundreds of

millions of dollars in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and

Honduras that was cut off by the Trump administration.

The same provisions that helped win over progressive

Democrats were denounced by House Republicans as "poison pills."

Republicans said they preferred the $4.6 billion Senate version

of the bill, which has passed a committee on a bipartisan basis,

and includes money - left out by the House - to pay overtime for

Immigration and Customs Enforcement employees.

The House bill is a sham that "does not help our

overstretched law enforcement authorities," said House

Republican leader Kevin McCarthy.

With administration officials warning they will soon run out

of funds at the border, and a one-week congressional recess

coming up next week, House Democrats hurried to pass the measure

on Tuesday. But the Senate has yet to pass its version, and the

two chambers must agree on the same legislation before it is

sent to Trump. 

Reuters

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