McConnell blames Obama for immigration crisis

The Senate's top Republican is blaming Obama administration policies for the arrival of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors at the nation's southern border. And Mitch McConnell says the president's emergency spending request amounts to more of the same.

Related:
• Obama seeks $3.7B to handle immigration crisis
• Child migrant crisis has legal, political hurdles
• UN urges US to treat migrants as refugees

On the Senate floor today, McConnell said President Barack Obama seems to be "asking for a blank check" that would let him sustain what McConnell calls "his current failed policy."

Obama has asked for $3.7 billion to help deal with the flood of immigrants.

McConnell says Republicans "want to make sure we actually get the right tools to help fix the problem." And he says it's "not what we've seen so far from the president."

Yesterday, House Speaker John Boehner raised similar concerns to reporters, and he was noncommittal about bringing the president's request to a vote.

Obama, visiting Dallas yesterday, asked Congress to act quickly on the emergency spending request. Among those who met with the president yesterday was Republican Gov. Rick Perry -- who, in a statement afterward, made no promises to help build Republican support for the spending package. Perry also underscored the notion that the border crisis was the result of what he called Obama's "bad public policy" on immigration.