Rick Perry Refuses to Back Obama's Request for $3.7B for Border Crisis
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who met with Barack Obama last week, said Sunday he will not back the president's request for $3.7 billion from Congress to deal with an influx of undocumented child migrants from Central America at the U.S. border.
Over the last three months, tens of thousands of illegal immigrants have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border with Texas at the center of the crisis, but the state's Republican governor says he would not urge the state's congressional delegation to heed Obama's request for the emergency funds.
"He doesn't need this amount of money," Perry told Fox News on Sunday. What is needed, instead, is that the National Guard is sent to the southern border to tighten security there, he added.
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"This will allow the Border Patrol to get back to what it does," said Perry, who met Obama last week during the latter's visit.
"When we asked the president to come this last week, he made a decision not to come," Perry went on to say, referring to Obama's refusal to visit the border saying he wasn't interested in a "photo op." The president instead attended fundraisers in Texas.
"Time after time you see a response from this administration that says, 'You know what, we're really not that interested in the southern border of the United States,'" Perry charged, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "It could have been stopped years ago had the administration listened, had the administration been focused on the border with Texas," he said.
"Our view as House Republicans is that we're not going to write a blank check," Texas GOP Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told "Fox News Sunday."
The Obama administration needs funds for the HHS to provide shelter and other needs for the children who arrive in the country's territory, even as their cases are being processed. The government also needs to increase the number of judges and other officials on the border.
Meanwhile, media personality Glenn Beck has announced he will send soccer balls and hot meals to the border.
Beck will bring tractor-trailers packed with food, water, teddy bears and soccer balls to McAllen, Texas, for the children on July 19. He will be joined by Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah and Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas. In his party will also be a number of pastors and rabbis.
The immigrant youth have no fault of their own, but they are caught in political crossfire, said Beck as he announced his efforts to help them, according to The Blaze. "And while we continue to put pressure on Washington and change its course of lawlessness, we must also help. It is not either, or. It is both. We have to be active in the political game, and we must open our hearts."
Beck said he is getting "violent emails" from people saying he's "betrayed the Republic."
"Whatever. I've never taken a position more deadly to my career than this – and I have never, ever taken a position that is more right than this ... When America stops being good, we are no longer able to be great," Beck added.
