Multiple Senate Republicans pressed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday to attach policy changes to the White House border supplemental request.
The exchanges during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing underscored the uphill battle the Biden administration faces in getting its supplemental funding request passed as the Department of Homeland Security grapples with immense strain on its resources amid a high number of border crossings.
The White House’s border security supplemental ask – totaling around $14 billion – reflects the administration’s repeated requests for funding to bolster personnel along the US-Mexico border, provides funds to cities supporting asylum seekers and funds new initiatives aimed at stemming the flow of migration to the United States.
Earlier this week, Republicans Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas announced key border policy proposals that Senate Republicans would like passed in negotiations over the White House’s supplemental request, including building more border barriers. Many of these proposed policy changes have been widely panned by Democrats.
Graham insisted on policy changes, specifically on asylum, in his exchange with Mayorkas on Wednesday. Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi were among those that followed suit.
“Please explain why Congress should provide you with billions more so-called border security funding if you’re just going to keep the same failed policies in place,” Hyde-Smith said.
“I do not think it is a failure of policy. It is the failure of a broken immigration system. It is also the product of an under resourced, perennially, under resourced department,” Mayorkas responded. “This supplemental will assist us in further securing…
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