Also last week, officials said that the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency assigned to care for unaccompanied migrant children, would begin cutting services “not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety.” This includes English classes, legal aid and recreational programs.

Democrats and other administration critics called the move “cruel” and “illegal,” but the financial reality is that the agency is overwhelmed. So far this fiscal year , it has taken charge of nearly 41,000 unaccompanied children — a 57 percent increase over last year. The entire program could run out of funding by the end of June.

In short, it is time for Congress to stop dithering and pass emergency funding to deal with this nightmare.

It has been more than a month since the administration sent Congress a request for $4.5 billion in additional border assistance. A large portion of the money, $3.3 billion, was earmarked for humanitarian aid — which most lawmakers agree is sorely needed. But a r elatively modest piece of the reques t aimed at shoring up border security operations, roughly a quarter of the total, has tied negotiators in knots.

Early on, Democrats were opposed to funding additional detention beds for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Republicans had problems with Democrats’ demands for changes in the administration’s asylum policies. At one point, negotiators thought they were close to resolving these conflicts, only to have other issues snarl the process. Beyond the money for security, one of the remaining disagreements is how much data sharing will be allowed between the agencies responsible for caring for migrant children and those that handle border enforcement.