Border Surge Overwhelming, Officials Tell Congress

Tens of thousands of children streaming from chaotic Central American nations to the U.S. border have overwhelmed the government's ability to respond, senior administration officials said Wednesday as President Barack Obama urged Congress to move swiftly to approve emergency spending request for the crisis.

Emerging from a highly anticipated meeting with Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Dallas, Obama said he was open to suggestions from Perry and others that he dispatch National Guard troops to the border, but warned such a solution would only work temporarily. He said Republicans appealing for him to embrace their ideas for addressing the crisis should grant his request so the government will have the resources to put those ideas into action.

"The problem here is not major disagreement," Obama said, but rather getting Congress to release the needed funds. "If they're interested in solving the problem, then this can be solved. If the preference is for politics, then it won't be solved."

But as Obama traveled to Texas, Republican opposition hardened to his $3.7 billion request, leaving any solution unclear. At the same time, the political pressures on the president appeared to grow from all sides, as Republicans denounced him on the Senate floor, and even some Democrats began to join GOP demands for him to visit the U.S.-Mexican border — calls the White House continued to reject.

In Washington, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has supported Obama's stalled quest to remake the nation's immigration laws, said he could not support the president's spending request.

"I cannot vote for a provision which will then just perpetuate an unacceptable humanitarian crisis that's taking place on our southern border," McCain said on the Senate floor, where he was joined by fellow Arizonan Jeff Flake and Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Ted Cruz. They took take turns blaming Obama's policies for causing the border situation, contending that his efforts to relax some deportations have contributed to rumors circulating in Central America that once here, migrant kids will be allowed to stay.

"Amnesty is unfolding before our very eyes," Cruz said ...

And even some Democrats said Obama would be well-advised to visit the border and see the situation for himself ...

The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Gil Kerlikowske, told senators in Washington on Wednesday that the number of unaccompanied minors picked up since October now stands at 57,000, up from 52,000 in mid-June ...

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