Compromise possible on deportation of minors from Central America

WASHINGTON – Outlines of a possible compromise that would more quickly deport minors arriving from Central America emerged Thursday as part of President Barack Obama’s $3.7 billion emergency request to address the immigration crisis on the nation’s southern border.

Republicans demanded speedier deportations, which the White House initially had supported but left out of its proposal after complaints from immigrant advocates and some Democrats. On Thursday, the top House and Senate Democrats pointedly left the door open to them.

“It’s not a deal-breaker,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Let them have their face-saver. But let us have the resources to do what we have to do.” Her spokesman Drew Hammill later clarified that any changes “must ensure due process for these children.”

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: “I’m not going to block anything. Let’s see what comes to the floor.”

But opposition arose late in the day from key Democratic senators, suggesting battles ahead before any deal could be struck.

“I can assure you that I will fight tooth and nail changes in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy said at a hearing on the situation, referring to the law Republicans want to change.

Proponents of speedier deportations say an effective way to stem the tide of young immigrants crossing the border would be to send them back home right away, to show their parents that the trip north was wasted.

The developments came as Obama’s Homeland Security secretary, Jeh Johnson, defended the emergency spending request at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He said that without the money, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol agencies would both run out of money in the next two months, and the Homeland Security Department “would need to divert significant funds from other critical programs just to maintain operations.”

At issue is a law approved in 2008 during the Bush administration. Passed to give protection to sex trafficking victims, it requires court hearings for migrant young people who arrive in this country from “noncontiguous” countries – anywhere other than Mexico or Canada.

Because of enormous backlogs in the immigration court system, the result in the current crisis is that kids streaming in from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are released to relatives or others in the U.S. with notices to appear at long-distant court hearings that many of them never will attend.

Republicans want the government to have the authority to treat Central American kids the same way as kids from Mexico, who can be removed quickly unless they convince Border Patrol that they have a fear of return that merits additional screening.

White House officials have said they support such changes.

More than 57,000 unaccompanied children have arrived since October even as tens of thousands more have arrived traveling as families, mostly mothers with their children.