The White House formally threatened to veto House Republicans’ border funding supplemental for the child migrant crisis, saying it “could make the situation worse, not better.”
The proposal includes $659 million in new funds to speedily process the estimated 57,000 undocumented minors apprehended at the border in recent months. It also makes numerous changes to immigration laws which the White House said would “undercut due process for vulnerable children” and potentially threaten their lives.
“If the President were presented with H.R. 5230, his senior advisors would recommend he veto the bill,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement on Wednesday.
It’s unclear if House Republicans have the votes to pass the legislation. Democratic leaders are whipping against it, and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is reportedly pushing House GOP members to vote against it because it doesn’t target President Barack Obama’s executive actions to defer deportations for young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
Even if it passes, the bill is going nowhere in the Democratic-led Senate, which is trying to pass a separate $3.6 billion supplemental package which does not change immigration laws.