As he visits Texas Wednesday for a Democratic Party fundraising campaign, US President Barack Obama has asked Congress for some US$3.7 billion in funds to respond to the worsening flood of immigrants crossing the Mexican border into Texas and California.

But he continues to receive criticism from Republicans in the House of Representatives, saying he ought to see the crisis first-hand while the President is in Texas.

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The White House says Obama's Texas trip does not include a visit to Border Patrol stations and relief centers where thousands of undocumented immigrants, many of them children, are being attended to.

Obama's funding request, roughly 10% of the US$30 billion he was asking for border security enhancement under the stalled immigration reform bill, will be used to boost the campaign against human smugglers that the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice are jointly focused on.

The state department intends to use US$300 million to help Central American governments, including Mexico, counter misinformation by human smugglers who apparently convince border crossers they will be gladly received by Border Patrol agents when they arrive inside US territory.

But even inside government and private shelters housing illegal immigrants, misinformation is spreading at an alarming rate about cases of scabies and tuberculosis among the new arrivals, especially children.

No matter how health authorities deny that contagious diseases are spreading in the welfare centers, anonymous sources tell of at least four tuberculosis cases in a processin center in Austin, Texas, and an undetermined number of scabies cases elsewhere that even affected some Border Patrol employees.

The Department of Health and Human Services was quick to release a statement saying that all immigrants that come through them are given vaccinations and screened for contagious diseases before being released to the temporary shelters.

Included in President Obama's fund request is US$1.8 billion to enable the Department of Health and Human Services to continue providing medical and social services especially to unaccompanied children crossing the border.

TagsTexas, Barack Obama, Central America, Mexico