Senate Appropriations Committee leaders from both parties continue to work on a bipartisan bill to provide funding for Ukraine, Israel, and other needs but the chairwoman of the panel on Wednesday warned that she has no appetite for a deal that includes extreme Republican policies to counter the flow of illegal immigration into the U.S.
“I’m going to continue to work with my colleagues to meet all the key priorities that the president [has] outlined, but I want to be clear to Republicans who think there’s a chance to jam a huge far right wish lists on immigration,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said. “The recent proposal that revived [former President] Trump’s border wall, closed our doors on asylum seekers, and rewrote immigration laws is not going to go anywhere.”
Murray said she is working with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), vice chairwoman of the committee, on the $106 billion emergency supplemental as a complete package. The House last week approved its version of the supplemental, providing about $14 billion for Israel to help that country combat Hamas terrorists. The House bill also included a $14 billion offset in cuts to the Internal Revenue Service.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has already said the House’s standalone bill for Israel will not be considered in the upper chamber.
President Joe Biden’s supplemental request includes billions of dollars related to border security and immigration enforcement. The bill seeks $849 million to purchase additional non-intrusive inspection systems to scan for illicit drugs and other items entering the U.S. through southwest border ports of entry, and hundreds of millions more for additional Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers help stem the flow of illegal migrants, drugs, and other contraband.
The Senate hearing examined the supplemental funding requests for the Departments of Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas stressed the need for comprehensive immigration reform to stem record encounters of illegal migrants trying to enter the U.S. He avoided answering questions about near-term incremental or piecemeal changes to immigration policies.
Asked by Sen. Shelley Capito (R-W.Va.) to rank the top three policy changes contained in Biden’s 2021 proposal for immigration reform, Mayorkas replied, “I would be quite hesitant to rank which ones are the best. But I continue to adhere to the approach that when we’re speaking of a system that has not been reformed since 1996, that we need to reform it from top to bottom.”
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who said he does not agree with all the Republicans’ proposals, told Mayorkas that the Biden administration needs to consider making incremental policy changes to immigration that can be done relatively quickly rather than wait for a comprehensive reform bill.
“So, I’m also not one of the key negotiators, but I just wanted to give you a flavor for look, I think we’re going to have to do some small things and we can’t say, ‘We can’t do anything until we do everything,’” Schatz said. “I just think that’s not a tenable position given the political configuration of the Congress and what we need to accomplish in the next six weeks.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) agreed with Mayorkas on the need for comprehensive immigration reform but also agreed with Schatz that in the meantime there needs to be incremental policy changes.
“And so, as we work within the parameters of what I think is a very important emergency supplemental—Ukraine, Israel, support in the Indo-Pacific, support for the border, meaningful support for the border—recognize that this side of the dais is not just talking to hear themselves talk,” she said. “We need to see some reforms that just putting more money to a broken system doesn’t give people the confidence that they need. And I’m with you. We need to have more men and women on the border. We need to have more technologies, but we also need to be able to look critically at some of the policies that we have in place and admit that they’re just not working right now.”
Sen. John Tester (D-Mont.), chairman of the panel’s defense subcommittee, said the “administration needs to do more to secure our border.” He agreed on the need for more manpower and technology to strengthen border security but also agreed with “some of my Republican colleagues here today” on the need for bipartisan policy “reforms to fix this broken immigration system.”