A border policy that allows immigration officials to turn away migrants during a public health crisis is holding up passage of the omnibus as Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) insists on an amendment to the spending bill that would keep the pandemic-era policy in place.
More than 2 million migrants have been expelled under Title 42, a public health statute that the Trump administration used to stem the flow of illegal immigration during the coronavirus pandemic. President Joe Biden has sought to end the practice since the spring, arguing the health emergency had subsided, but a group of Republican-led states has sued in federal court to block him from scrapping the policy.
BIDEN FACES RENEWED BORDER PRESSURE AS TITLE 42 HANGS IN THE BALANCE
A district court judge called the Title 42 program “arbitrary and capricious” and ordered the Biden administration to end it by Wednesday, but Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily froze that deadline on Monday after the Supreme Court was asked to step in.
The following day, the Biden administration asked the court to end the program but requested that it not expire until at least Dec. 27 to allow immigration officials time to prepare for an influx at the southern border.
Border agents are encountering thousands of immigrants each day, a number that’s expected to spike with the program’s end. Biden has already sharply curtailed Title 42’s use, with the administration instead processing immigrants under Title 8, which allows border officials to screen for asylum claims.
The shift away from Title 42 has angered conservatives, who say lifting the policy would create chaos at the border. Lee, part of a group of conservative Republicans opposed to the omnibus, is trying to force the administration to keep the policy in place, using a Friday deadline to fund the government as a bargaining chip in a fight over border policy.
A single senator can object to fast-tracking a vote on the $1.7 trillion spending bill, threatening the Senate’s ability to pass the omnibus with just hours to go before a government shutdown. Senate leadership has been negotiating separate votes on a slate of amendments, largely from conservative Republicans, to get a time agreement.
But it’s Lee’s insistence on a Title 42 amendment that a Democratic Senate aide told Punchbowl News is a “poison pill.” Lee is requesting a vote on language that would cut funding for the office of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas unless Biden keeps Title 42 in place.
“So, I insisted that we have at least one amendment, up-or-down vote, on whether to preserve Title 42. Because Title 42 is the one thing standing between us and utter chaos. We already have mostly chaos. This would bring us to utter chaos if it expires, which it’s about to,” he said Wednesday night on Fox News.
If the amendment passes, Democrats say the omnibus would be “dead on arrival” in the House, which will vote on the bill after it passes the Senate. Democrats are reportedly circulating a competing amendment on Title 42 meant to attract centrists and pull away support for Lee’s amendment.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, criticized Lee’s push for the amendment on Wednesday.
“We have a difference of opinion on immigration policy. We’re not going to solve that in this budget,” he told reporters. “And to let that disagreement take down aid to Ukraine to keep people alive during a cold winter, especially tonight, is pretty unthinkable.”
Senate leaders had hoped to hold a vote on the omnibus as early as Wednesday night as a winter storm threatens to scuttle lawmakers’ plans for holiday travel. But as the night stretched on, it became clear negotiations would have to resume in the morning.
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for the Senate to reconvene at 8 a.m., saying at 2 a.m., “It is my expectation that we will be able to lock in an agreement on the omnibus later this morning. We are very close, but we’re not there yet.” He has asked members to stay near the chamber to “minimize any delays.”
Schumer and his Senate counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), have been working with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to fund the government through September with a 4,000-page-plus omnibus that includes aid for Ukraine and the Electoral Count Reform Act, legislation to avoid another Jan. 6-style attack on the Capitol.
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But conservative Republicans have called for a short-term extension of government funding that lasts into early next year once the GOP takes control of the House of Representatives. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), facing pressure from his right flank as he vies to become speaker next year, has taken aim at Senate Republicans, pledging to tank their legislation next year if they vote “yes” on the omnibus.
That threat, directed at McConnell himself, appears not to be deterring the senators. The omnibus cleared a key procedural vote on Tuesday, with 21 Republican senators joining Democrats to advance the bill.
