Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

House OKs bill for crisis on U.S.-Mexico border

Congress

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio defends the work of the GOP during a brief news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 31, 2014, as Congress prepares to leave for a five-week summer recess.

Updated Friday, Aug. 1, 2014 | 6:02 p.m.

WASHINGTON — The House has approved a $694 million bill to address the crisis of unaccompanied migrant youths arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The GOP legislation passed 223-189 late Friday on a nearly party-line vote. Last-minute changes won support from conservative holdouts who had forced GOP leaders to pull the bill from the floor a day earlier.

The bill would increase spending for National Guard at the border and add immigration judges and detention facilities.

It makes policy changes so that the migrant kids could be sent home more quickly.

But with the Senate already out of session for the summer, the bill stands no chance of becoming law.

Democrats call it a sham proceeding, and President Barack Obama says he'll have to act on his own.

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