GOP opposition grows to Obama's billion-dollar request to fix immigration, border crisis

Republicans escalated their opposition Sunday to President Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to help fix the illegal immigration crisis at the southern U.S. border -- posing alternatives and arguing they can resolve immediate problems for less money.

McCaul said his caucus was looking at changing a 2008 law that allows children entering the United States from non-bordering countries to remain in this country and expressed optimism that the GOP-led House will pass an alternative border security bill before August.

“We have to act soon,” he said. “It's a very tragic human crisis at the border, none like I've ever seen before.”

“He doesn’t need this amount of money,” Perry told Fox News.

Perry instead called for sending National Guardsmen to the border until more U.S. Border Patrol agents are trained and ready for action.

“This will allow the Border Patrol to get back to what it does,” said Perry, responding to reports of agents now spending much of their time doing paperwork and accepting arriving families at the border, instead of performing law-enforcement duties ...

Obama’s proposal reportedly would include money for education and urgent health care for children as well as legal counsel for illegal immigrants at their deportation hearings