--- title: Boehner: Obama's Not Getting a 'Blank Check' for the Border description: House Speaker John Boehner indicates that the House won't pass President Obama's bill to combat the border crisis canonical: https://time.com/2973482/boehner-obama-border/ author: Alex Rogers article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-10T16:59:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:01:08.965Z article:section: Politics og:title: Boehner: Obama's Not Getting a 'Blank Check' for the Border og:description: House Speaker John Boehner indicates that the House won't pass President Obama's bill to combat the border crisis og:url: https://time.com/2973482/boehner-obama-border/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt052375e1b3bae437/69869b4155a859e51da81bd9/boehner-border.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: John Boehner og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Boehner: Obama's Not Getting a 'Blank Check' for the Border twitter:description: House Speaker John Boehner indicates that the House won't pass President Obama's bill to combat the border crisis twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt052375e1b3bae437/69869b4155a859e51da81bd9/boehner-border.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Boehner: Obama's Not Getting a 'Blank Check' for the Border > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Obama Fires Back Over Border Crisis [Watch (HLS stream): Obama Fires Back Over Border Crisis](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YVsH9Sf8.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2014-07-10. Obama is firing back after harsh criticism on immigration issues_ by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jul 10, 2014 4:59 PM UTC  U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) answers questions during his weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol July 10, 2014 in Washington, DC. U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) answers questions during his weekly press conference at the U.S. Capitol July 10, 2014 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee—Getty Images by [Alex Rogers](https://time.com/author/alex-rogers/) ## Alex Rogers Jul 10, 2014 4:59 PM UTC House Speaker John Boehner brushed off President’s Barack Obama’s bill to address the border crisis as a “blank check” Thursday, indicating his chamber won’t pass the legislation as written. Boehner said the House should take action on the border crisis this month, but said any concrete steps are “yet to be determined.” Obama announced Wednesday that he would consider sending the National Guard to better secure the border — a move Boehner supports — if the President receives the $3.7 billion he requested in supplemental spending legislation. Boehner slammed that added condition as political. “He won’t do it for the kids; it’s all about politics,” said Boehner. Boehner and Obama, however, do agree that a 2008 bill that dictates how the government handles unaccompanied child migrants should be reformed. One provision in that law mandates that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection must hand over within 72 hours the unaccompanied minors in its custody over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which takes care of them until the immigration cases are decided. Under the law, Border Patrol agents have the authority to determine whether children from contiguous countries—Mexico and Canada—are eligible to stay in the country. Boehner said Thursday that he supports changing the law to apply to children hailing from noncontiguous countries. [More than 50,000 unaccompanied minors](http://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/southwest-border-unaccompanied-children) have been caught on the southwest border this year; most hail from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ]. Today, far from the border, in Denver, President Obama did address the immigration crisis in a slum on Republicans. [ INAUDIBLE ] Congress just said no to fixing our broken immigration system, [ NOISE ] in a way that strengthens our borders and our businesses. Despite that fact that everybody from law enforcement, to. Corporations to evangelicals. I, there, there's a coalition around immigration reform that's unprecedented. These guys still can't get their act together. [ MUSIC ]. The administration defends itself. The whole federal government is all over this situation. It is true they tried to get out ahead of the problem in May, mobilizing resources. But on Capitol Hill today, Republicans were furious as the President continues to not plan to see the border situation himself, the thousands of children in temporary shelters. The root cause is, literally is we have got to stop incentivizing. Parents and other immigrants coming into this nation. They're blaming Obama for not only failing to prevent this, based on sharply rising numbers of unaccompanied minors starting around 2012, and exploding this year. Gov. Perry down in Texas warned the White House about this specific issue. Two years ago, but they are also saying the President started granting some amnesty to kids brought here illegally years ago by their parents is a cause. It is a disaster that is the direct consequence of President Obama's lawlessness. The direct predictable, forseeable consequence. Of granting that amnesty as the number of children, unaccompanied children immediately began to skyrocket. The congressional anger out there includes wanting to see more border security. The same thing the White House blames them for holding up in not passing immigration reform. But even some Democrats now are balking. As showing President Obama the money he's asking for. What I'm going to be focused on is accountability, who's in charge, what the plan is, who's going to be held responsible, before we spend you know, $ 3. 7 billion. 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