House yields to Senate, passes $4.6B border fund bill

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Senate's version of a border funding bill Thursday, conceding after passing its own version earlier in the week.

The House voted 305-102 to pass the Senate's bill after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reversed her previous call to synthesize the two bills before lawmakers go on recess for the Fourth of July holiday.

"The children come first. At the end of the day, we have to make sure that the resources needed to protect the children are available," Pelosi said in a letter reportedly sent to her caucus.

The Senate's legislation proposed an allocation of $1.3 billion for border facility improvements and $2.9 billion for the care of migrant children. Passing with a vote of 84-8, it stood in conflict with the House’s version.

The House legislation called for congressional visits to detention facilities without advance notice, improvement of nutrition and hygiene and the delivery of medical care but was criticized by the Senate, which said it was one-sided.

"The House has not made much progress toward actually making a law, just more resistance theater," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "The Senate has a better and more bipartisan way forward."

The bill now heads to President Donald Trump's desk for approval.

The president has pursued a hardline approach to immigration since coming to office and has particularly singled out Mexico for what he says is a lack of action to stem the flow of migrants from Central America, where people are fleeing destitute conditions -- including rampant poverty and gang violence -- in the hope of securing safety or asylum in the U.S.

Both bills came after a photo went viral on social media showing the bodies of a father and daughter who had drowned while trying to swim across the Rio Grande on their way to the U.S. The treatment of migrant children in detention centers across the U.S. has also come into the public eye and has been in part a catalyst for the competing legislation.