WASHINGTON (AP) — The flood of migrant children trying to cross the Mexican border without their parents is being called an "urgent humanitarian situation" — and it's likely to cost the government more than $1 billion more than the Obama administration had expected.
President Barack Obama described the situation at the border in stark terms in a presidential memorandum Monday outlining the government's response and putting Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate in charge of coordinating the effort.
Late last week, the Obama administration asked Congress for $1.4 billion in extra funding to help house, feed and transport the tens of thousands of children being caught trying to cross the border illegally, and turned to the Defense Department to help temporarily house more than 1,000 of the children.