Last month, President Biden requested $13.6 billion in emergency funding to deal with record levels of illegal immigration. There is no disputing that the situation at the border constitutes a national emergency, but it is an emergency almost entirely created by the president’s own policies. As such, giving the Biden administration more money, without conditioning it on radically altering the policies that created the emergency, would only exacerbate the border crisis while plunging the nation $13.6 billion deeper into debt.
Upon close examination of the administration’s emergency funding request for the border, it is clear that its goal is not to halt, or even deter, the influx of illegal aliens, but rather to manage, process and release millions of people who are defrauding our immigration system. The bulk of the funding would be used to expedite the release of newly arriving illegal aliens, transporting them to their desired destinations within the United States, and providing the migrants housing and a panoply of other services and benefits. Much of this money would be funneled through a variety of NGOs that lobbied for the policies that have resulted in some 9 million illegal entries since Mr. Biden became president.
Congressional Republicans are understandably skeptical about handing the administration an additional $13.6 billion to fund the very policies that got us into this mess. The ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Susan Collins (R-Maine), argued that, “Targeted funding must be accompanied by policy changes that ensure that our borders are secure, that our immigration system is not exploited and that it is fair to those who legally immigrate.”
Specifically, the changes Republicans are demanding include restoring effective policies that were in place when President Biden entered office – particularly those designed to enforce mandatory detention and end the mass catch and release of illegal aliens. They also want to end asylum abuse and limit humanitarian parole – a power that is supposed to be exercised only on a “case-by-case” basis, but that this administration has used to allow more than 1.4 million otherwise inadmissible aliens into the country.
The administration is resolutely rejecting policy changes as a condition for the funding they are seeking. “We need the funding that we are requesting immediately,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told the Senate Appropriations Committee. “We fully endorse the need for policy changes, not in piecemeal form, but in a comprehensive form.”
A spokesman for President Biden, however, made it clear that their vision of comprehensive “policy changes” are vastly different from what congressional Republicans have in mind. Far from securing our borders and enforcing our immigration laws, the White House is focused on mass amnesty for illegal aliens who are here, and enacting policies designed to accommodate the demands of those seeking to come here, regardless of the impact on the American public.
“We disagree with many of the policies contained in the new Senate Republican border proposal,” Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman said. “Further, we do not see anything in their proposal about creating an earned path to citizenship for Dreamers and others. Congress should fund the President's supplemental request to secure the border now.”
There is nothing in the Republican proposal granting amnesty to various groups of illegal aliens because it would do nothing to address the border crisis. Not only would amnesty programs create even greater incentives for illegal immigration, they would drain enormous resources from the agencies charged with securing our borders and enforcing our immigration laws, as those agencies attempted to sort out millions of claims.
The mere fact that the administration has submitted an emergency request for additional funding at the border is a frank admission that there is an emergency at the border. The question now becomes should we expend additional money to manage the crisis that seems to be getting worse each month, or condition the funding on strong legislative language to halt it?
The House has already approved that strong legislative language in the form of H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act, that the Senate refuses to consider. Since the bill was passed in May, not only has the situation at the border further deteriorated, but the national security stakes of an unsecured border have become more acute, as FBI Director Christopher Wray and others have warned explicitly.
Approving President Biden’s request for border funding must be condition on the inclusion of H.R. 2, or at least its most essential provisions in the language of the bill. To do otherwise would not only be a waste of taxpayers’ money, it would make the border crisis even worse.
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