The Biden administration and Congress are facing a dilemma regarding policy adjustments and funding allocation at the southern border. The White House finds itself unable to implement new policies due to the lack of additional funds, while House Republicans refuse to release funding without significant revisions to U.S. immigration policy.
The Department of Homeland Security has developed potential measures that could be implemented independently, such as expediting deportation procedures for certain migrants. However, these proposals have been postponed temporarily as DHS faces staffing shortages, as indicated by three Biden administration officials.
Originally, the Biden administration sought over $13 billion from Congress to enhance border resources. However, following the blocking of a bipartisan Senate bill by Republicans.
This would have had a substantial impact on immigration and border policy, the national security package passed by the upper chamber on Tuesday excluded any funding for the border.
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For weeks, President Joe Biden has been holding frequent meetings with top aides to discuss border security, emphasizing the broken nature of the system. He has been urging officials to devise solutions that do not rely on Congress.
“Congress controls the purse strings,” a source involved in the congressional negotiation process told NBC News. “There is no magic pot of money for the administration.”
According to two DHS officials speaking to NBC News, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is anticipating a budget deficit of more than $500 million. That, if the Congress opts to fund the government through a continuing resolution without providing additional funds to ICE or other sectors of DHS.
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At that rate, key areas of ICE operations, including deportation flights and detention, could run out of money and force the agency to scale back operations by May, the officials said.
The Biden administration widely recognizes the necessity for executive action to tackle the significant influx of migrants crossing the southern border, especially following the collapse of the bipartisan border deal in Congress.
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Divergent views persist within the White House and the Department of Homeland Security regarding the optimal strategy. This comes amidst the politically charged atmosphere in the lead-up to the November election, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
In a statement, a White House spokesperson said, “The administration spent months negotiating in good faith to deliver the toughest and fairest bipartisan border security bill in decades because we need Congress to make significant policy reforms and to provide additional funding to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system. Congressional Republicans chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security and rejected what border agents have said they need.”
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