Senators reject Mayorkas’ demand for border money now, immigration policy changes later

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress on Wednesday that he needs $14 billion in border money immediately but any policy changes must wait until lawmakers are ready to pass a broad immigration bill that includes legalization of illegal immigrants.

Democrats and Republicans told him he was wrong.

Senators made clear that they and their constituents want policies to change the trajectory of the worst border chaos in history and funding to increase hiring isn’t enough.

“It’s not that I necessarily agree with what’s being proposed by Republicans, but I do believe we should look for incremental improvements that can be executed,” Sen. Brian Schatz, Hawaii Democrat, told Mr. Mayorkas. “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.’”

“This administration needs to do more to secure our border,” said Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat.

Mr. Mayorkas kicked off the hearing by rebuffing an overture from Sen. Susan M. Collins, an influential moderate Republican from Maine, who asked whether he would accept policy changes along with the money he is requesting.

He said the administration doesn’t want to tackle just one part of the immigration mess right now and a comprehensive bill would take too much time, so he wants only the money.

“We need the funding that we are requesting immediately,” he said.

Senators told him that won’t happen.

“We need to see some reforms,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican. “Just putting more money into a broken system doesn’t give people the confidence they need.”

The impasse threatens President Biden’s broader $106 billion emergency package, including money for Ukraine and Israel.

The Israel money could easily pass on its own, but Mr. Biden said he wants all of it lumped together. Republicans said they would have a tough time selling reluctant voters on the Ukraine funding without a more serious border plan.

“If you want me to be able to vote for this, you’re going to have to help me deal with the following question: Why are you so intent on helping Ukraine, you’re not doing much about our own country when we have a border that’s completely broken?” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican.

Mr. Mayorkas made a strenuous effort to defend Mr. Biden’s border plans to hire additional border agents and officers, asylum adjudicators and immigration court personnel; to add more inspection technology at border crossings; to expand detention and deportation capacity; and to allocate more money to localities struggling to welcome all the migrants who have been caught and released into their communities.

Mr. Mayorkas said the money would reduce the number of illegal immigrants evading detection and increase deportations, sending a signal outside the U.S. that migrants may not win quick catch-and-release.

“The supplemental will assist us in advancing our mission dramatically,” he said.

Asked for specific metrics, such as how much illegal immigration would be reduced, he struggled.

“We’re going to need some way to track that performance that you are actually solving the problem,” said Sen. John Hoeven, North Dakota Republican.

The secretary and the senators couldn’t even agree on why border migration has erupted.

Mr. Mayorkas said the problem isn’t Biden policies but rather “a broken immigration system.” He said his department has been “perennially under-resourced.”

“The system is broken, and critically, we are terribly underfunded and under-resourced,” he said.

Republicans repeatedly held up a chart showing that the border was relatively calm in 2020 under President Trump and then exploded into chaos with the Biden administration. They said the reason isn’t the laws that Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden employed but how this administration has approached the issue.

“This is policy changes you all instituted I told y’all wouldn’t work. We now need to fix that,” Mr. Graham said. “Your supplemental makes everything worse, not better.”

Democrats said some policy changes in Mr. Biden’s request could help. Among them is a proposal allowing immigration court summonses to be served electronically. Mr. Mayorkas said that would be a “tremendous efficiency” for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.