As part of its budget the Senate approved for the law to be changed that speeds up deportations of illegal immigrant children who came in from Central America. Unfortunately the Senate fell short of 60 votes that would be needed to force a bill into law later.

Republican Senator John McCain from Arizona who promoted the change stated that it was necessary to send a signal to the unaccompanied minors who were preparing for another run at the US Mexico border this year that they would be sent back rather than allowed to stay in the US, as were all of the children from other countries – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador last year. He said that this had got to stop.

The law would allow the government to send illegal children from Mexico and Canada quickly back home, as it requires children from other countries to be processed and released to social workers or sponsors in the U.S.

Experts stated that the difference for partly responsible for the sudden surge last summer of illegal immigrants, which saw more than 10000 unaccompanied minors cross per month. A total of 68000 children crossed during the entire fiscal year.