WASHINGTON — After getting battered by critics for failing to confront a full-blown crisis at the US border, the White House rolled out a new plan to stem the flood of women and children crossing illegally that included ankle bracelets to monitor the migrants.
Other measures announced Friday would add judges, lawyers, and asylum officers to quickly process the human tide that has overwhelmed the immigration service and Border Patrol. Central American nations also would receive nearly $100 million in funding to help combat the problem.
“We are surging our enforcement resources,” said Obama’s domestic policy adviser Cecilia Muñoz.
She said the administration would also “push back” on the “misinformation” being spread that migrants who sneak into the United States would be welcome to stay.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) first floated the idea of using ankle bracelets on immigrants awaiting court hearings to free space in overcrowded detention centers.
But not everyone has embraced the idea.
In 2012, a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit in Dallas complained that the bracelets were “humiliating to wear, require a two- to three-hour a day charge, and are a clear restraint on liberty against individuals whose rights have already been adjudicated.”
Republican lawmakers who control the purse strings in the House outlined their own approach to clear the border, suggesting TV ads on Univision and Voice of America urging immigrants not to come.
Vice President Joe Biden delivered that message in person Friday in Guatemala.
“We’re approaching this issue with a shared recognition that the current situation is not sustainable. It is unacceptable. And we have a shared responsibility to take significant steps to address this issue,” he said, appearing with Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina.
Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department, said 52,000 unaccompanied child immigrants have come here between last Oct. 1 and June 15. Another 39,000 adults with children also appeared.
In a briefing with reporters, Mayorkas didn’t directly answer a question about how many immigrants ordered to report to an immigration agent after getting released met their responsibility.
The administration says most of the new arrivals won’t be able to stay. They aren’t eligible for the president’s “deferred action” of deportation or path to citizenship under a Senate-passed immigration bill. But they could apply for asylum.