The influx of new immigrants crossing into the country illegally has pressured lawmakers to come to some type of agreement on new border security and immigration measures. Grand bargains have failed in the past but what's usually a southwestern issue has now spread across the country as shelters fill up in places like Chicago, Denver, and New York.
Much of the pressure has been put on by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, R - Texas, whose Operation Lone Star has bused or flown tens of thousands of immigrants to northern cities. Recently, the mayors of those cities called on the Biden Administration to put more money into stemming the flow and providing services to new migrants.
Over the weekend, a top negotiator in the Senate said the upper chamber was close to a deal that may include limiting what's considered asylum. It is unlikely the plan will be approved without changes from the House. A series of key funding deadlines in the next two months will increase the stakes of the negotiations. If lawmakers cannot agree a government shutdown may happen.
Before the winter break, the Biden Administration put out a supplemental budget plan with billions of dollars more for border efforts. The plan includes 1,300 more border patrol agents, 1,600 more asylum officers and staff, more shelter beds, more removal flights out of the country, 1,470 more lawyers, and 375 more immigration judges to work through immigration cases.
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According to Syracuse University there is a 3 million case background in the immigration court system with only 600 judges. That means to clear the cases in one year, each judge has to work through 5,000 cases. That's without any new people coming in.
βIf President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by focusing on Americaβs national security," said Speaker Mike Johnson, R - Louisiana.
Earlier this week, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R - Louisiana, held an event with more than 60 members of Congress demanding major policy changes from the Biden Administration. Those include making asylum seekers wait for their court dates in Mexico while their case is being processed, the "remain in Mexico" policy put in place under former President Trump, and ending what they call "catch and release," meaning the longstanding policy of letting an asylum seeker out of custody while their case is pending. They want the Senate to pass HR 2, their version of the border security package.
Lone Star Politics
Covering politics throughout the state of Texas.
βHow do we fix this? We end catch and release. How do we fix it? We deport people who are here illegally by the thousands not by the dozens," said Rep. Tony Gonzales, R - San Antonio.
βWe have a job to do. The American people are absolutely sick of the policies theyβve seen under the Biden administration. And we will hold the line," said Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R - Irving.
NBC 5 Lone Star Politics spoke with Assistant Secretary of Border and Immigration Policy under Biden's Department of Homeland Security, Blas Nunez-Neto about the upcoming negotiations.
"The funding we have requested is critically needed and we really continue to urge Congress to pass those emergency funds," said Nunez-Neto, "We welcome the bipartisan negotiations that are taking place in the Senate and encourage and urge Speaker Johnson and the House majority to engage on a bipartisan basis to look for solutions here instead of just playing politics."
Nunez-Neto disagrees with Republican lawmakers who believe the Biden Administration is not strict enough on the border.
"We have, since the public health emergency ended on May 11, removed more than 460,000 people from the United States. That is a record for the period of time we're talking about. We've taken meaningful steps, as have previous administrations, with our executive authorities. However, we are clear-eyed that there are limits to what the federal government can do without Congress doing its job," said Nunez-Neto.
As for Operation Lone Star, Gov. Abbott's program to bus tens of thousands of migrants throughout the country, Nunez-Neto told NBC 5, that his actions are not helpful.
"We welcome coordinated actions by really any state, local entities that are really focused on trying to solve this problem in a meaningful way," said Nunez-Neto, "But when state governors act on their own, when they do not coordinate their actions, that really can become counterproductive and can sometimes put the migrants or even law enforcement at risk."
A big chunk of new immigrants claim asylum, running from poverty, political persecution; some just come for a better life. After they're caught by immigration officials, they get a court date months, sometimes years in the future. In the meantime, they can usually stay in the country because our courts have given immigrants some rights under the U.S. Constitution.
According to numbers from Customs and Border Protection, they had more than 240,000 encounters with immigrants in November 2023. That number is expected to be closer to 300,000 in December. NBC 5 spoke with many service providers in North Texas who tell us there simply is not room in the local shelters.
"The shelters are full. We need to face that. We hear it all over the news. They are over capacity so there is no way to keep giving those addresses," said Associate Pastor Isabel Marquez at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church.
Nunez-Neto argues the administration is enforcing the laws on the books and if congressional Republicans want to change asylum laws they'll have to change the laws through the legislative process with the Democrat-controlled Senate.
"We are a nation of laws and we are a nation of immigrants, and our laws, which Congress passed, are pretty clear about what happens on the border when individuals cross into the United States, express a fear, and seek asylum in the country," said Nunez-Neto, "We are obligated by law to process those individuals."
So is, more help coming for Dallas shelters and those in the big northern cities?
"That kind of assistance is really contingent on Congress passing the emergency supplemental that we just talked about," said Nunez-Neto.
Operation Lone Star is not the only dispute between Texas and the Federal government on immigration.
SB 4 allows local and state police to arrest people they believe crossed into Texas illegally. The new law also allows officers to take immigrants back to a port of entry if a local judge signs off on it.
In a lawsuit, the Department of Justice argued the new law violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta wrote, "States cannot adopt immigration laws that interfere with the framework enacted by Congress."
The latest court decision was around a decade ago when an Arizona law was found unconstitutional in Arizona vs. U.S. That state law made it a crime to not have legal status in the state. Governor Greg Abbott late last year said he believed the Texas law is constitutional because it's not a crime over status but a crime for physically crossing the border, like trespassing. He then went on to say that if this new Supreme Court overturns Arizona vs. U.S., he wouldn't be upset about it.