FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, July 31, 2014
CONTACT: Jamie Serlin at 202-224-5042 

Senator Coons votes to confront border crisis

Republicans block emergency funding measure to help border agencies handle influx of unaccompanied children

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, voted Thursday night to advance an emergency funding bill to address the humanitarian crisis at the Southwestern border. The bill would provide $2.7 billion to the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice, Health and Human Services, State, and USAID to help border agencies deal with the influx of unaccompanied children arriving from Central America. The bill was blocked by a budget point of order.

“Congress has a responsibility to deal with the humanitarian crisis on our border, and to address the needs of tens of thousands of children now held in U.S. custody. Before the end of next month, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will run out of funding for custody and removal services, and by September, Border Patrol will also exhaust its resources. This bill would ensure our border agents and immigration officials have the resources they need to carry out their duties and respond to this emergency.

“My colleagues who have insisted that the children seeking refuge at our border be met with force, rather than due process, and suspicion rather than compassion, have truly lost sight of our values as a nation. These children are not dangerous criminals who threaten our national security, but victims of violence and instability who have fled here as a last resort. We have a legal, and a moral, obligation to allow them their day in court, and to provide them with safe and adequate shelter in the interim. We cannot turn our backs on this crisis, and I’m deeply disappointed that some of my colleagues have done so tonight.”