Senate panels to address border crisis

Senate committees will hold hearings on the rising increase of unaccompanied minors being detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.

On Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing titled, “Challenges at the Border: Examining the Causes, Consequences, and Responses to the Rise in Apprehensions at the Southern Border.”

{mosads}Thousands of children from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have been stopped for trying to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Republicans have blamed President Obama’s executive order to defer the deportation of undocumented children who were brought to the United States by their parents, despite that fact that the order doesn’t apply to the new children entering the country.

But Obama blamed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for not allowing a House vote on the comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate last year.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will examine the same topic in a Tuesday hearing titled, “Falling Through the Cracks: The Challenges of Prevention and Identification in Child Trafficking and Private Re-homing.”

Details on these and other Senate hearings follow:

Senate Armed Services

– July 10, “Nominations”

9:30 a.m., G50 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

– July 8, “The Role of Regulation in Shaping Equity Market Structure and Electronic Trading”

10 a.m., 538 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Senate Energy and Natural Resources

– July 7, “Field Hearing: Outer Continental Shelf Production”

1:30 p.m., Cajundome Convention Center, Lafayette, La.

Senate Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs

– July 8, “Combating Forced Labor and Modern-Day Slavery in East Asia And The Pacific”

10 a.m., 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Subcommittee on European Affairs

– July 8, “Renewed Focus on European Energy Security”

2:30 p.m., 419 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions

Subcommittee on Children and Families

– July 8, “Falling Through the Cracks: The Challenges of Prevention and Identification in Child Trafficking and Private Re-homing

TBD, 430 Dirksen Senate Office Building 

Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

– July 9, “Challenges at the Border: Examining the Causes, Consequences, and Responses to the Rise in Apprehensions at the Southern Border”

10 a.m., 342 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Senate Indian Affairs

– July 9, “Legislative Business on S. 2442, S. 2465, S. 2479, S. 2480 and S. 2503”

2:30 p.m., 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building